Two employees from Medina Electric Cooperative (MEC), a not-for-profit electric cooperative corporation serving South Texas, were involved in a bucket truck accident at a railroad crossing on July 25.

The back of the truck was apparently hit by a train, according to Katie Haby, communications specialist for MEC. The exact cause of the accident is still being investigated, as of this writing.

“From what we know at this time, the employees drove across a railroad crossing and the back end of the truck was hit by a train. The crossing did have flashing lights marking it (ground and aerial) but did not have cross arms. The employees have stated the lights were not going off, but we have not determined if they were or weren’t at this time. No other vehicles (aside from the train) were involved/injured. There was slight damage done to the front of the train. The driver will be cited for failure to stop at a railroad track,” Haby wrote in an email to UF.

The employees were treated for non-life threatening injuries following the accident and have since been released from the hospital. Only one has returned to work.

The MEC fleet operates a total of 82 vehicles, not including ATVs and trailers, and travels more than 1.2 million miles annually.

The cooperative holds monthly safety meetings and offers training throughout the year, including defensive driving. In light of the recent accident, MEC is currently working with Union Pacific on a training class for all employees specifically dealing with railroad crossings.

“The safety of our employees is priority at Medina EC. Our service area is located partly in the Eagle Ford Shale and is seeing even more train and truck activity than it used to, so that is a risk we all need to be aware of and continue to provide additional training for. With safety, you have to always be on. You can’t stop thinking safety for even a minute, or accidents can happen. We are lucky that this incident wasn’t worse,” said Derly Carrizales, safety coordinator, CLCP, Medina Electric Cooperative.