A Tuesday evening collision between the Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway's Searsport Local and truck at the US Route 202 grade crossing left a pile of debris that included a derailed MMA B39-8E 8592.

By the time truck driver Mike Smith heard the clanging of the railroad signal bells, he knew his options were limited. "I had a choice," the 37-year-old Thomaston resident said Tuesday night, less than an hour after the back end of the tractor-trailer he was driving was struck by a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train. The collision and subsequent derailment occurred around 7 p.m. where the tracks cross Route 9, also known as Western Avenue. "My choice at that time was try to speed up and get out of its way or die," said Smith, who chose the former option and lived to tell about it.

The train tore off the back end of the trailer full of demolition debris Smith was hauling from Warren to the Pine Tree Landfill, spilling trash onto the roadway and into the steep gully that runs along the tracks. The impact pushed the train's engine and first two cars off the track.

No one was hurt.

The crossing, which has signals but no gate, sits at the bottom of a long, downward stretch of road with a significant bump in its approach. Smith was driving east. The train was traveling north toward Hermon.