SCHERTZ, Texas – There was a relatively full dining room at Sely’s Mexican Restaurant on Sunday morning when Arturo Salazar suddenly saw everyone scramble.
“All of a sudden, I just hear, like, a big boom. Then all the clients were running, like, toward the exit,” Salazar said. “It was kind of crazy. I saw the cars flying and everything.”
A freight train barreled into a big rig, which had become stuck on the tracks while hauling a load of cars, near FM 78 and Schertz Parkway. People nearby held their breath, initially wondering if the truck driver was OK.
Schertz police said that the person was able to escape before the train hit, and no injuries were reported.
Salazar was working in the kitchen just after 10 a.m. when the chaotic scene unfolded across the street.
Several people in the area captured jaw-dropping video of the moment the train collided with the train.
Across the tracks from the restaurant where Salazar was working, surveillance cameras outside Pete Larrieu’s Sweet Island Botanicals CBD shop also caught a different view of the crash.
The footage shows a view from behind the train as it slammed into the truck.
Staff members from Larrieu’s shop could be seen running toward the crash site.
“That truck got whipped around and was slammed up against the side of the train,” Larrieu said as he watched a playback of the video.
It’s a scene he said he has seen before up and down the railroad tracks.
Schertz police told KSAT that the crossing, which is on an incline, can present a problem for tractor-trailers.
Signs posted in the area illustrate the danger, showing how the middle section of a truck hauling a trailer can dip down and get caught on the crossing.
“A couple of years ago, we had one down at the next crossing, by First Street. It was the same thing as this, a car hauler,” he said. “These guys come up there and then they try to go over the track and then they get stuck.”
In recent years, KSAT has reported on at least two other train and big rig crashes in that general area along FM 78. There were no serious injuries or deaths involved in those crashes either.
After a similar crash in Cibolo, one elected city leader had previously called for additional safety measures to be implemented.
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