Sheriff’s Office investigates train pickup collision in Dent, no injuries reported

An unoccupied pickup was struck by a Canadian Pacific Railroad train near the city limits of Dent late Friday night, leaving the truck severely damaged and sending the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office to the scene.

The sheriff’s office was contacted at about 11:45 p.m. by railroad employees after the collision, and investigators later reached the truck’s owner and confirmed there were no injuries. KFGO reported that there was no damage to the train or tracks.

The crash put a familiar local crossing issue back in focus for Dent, a small Otter Tail County community with a listed population of 170. Even when a rail collision does not injure anyone, it can still disrupt traffic, draw law enforcement to the area and raise questions about how a vehicle ended up in the path of a train.

That broader safety concern is not limited to Dent. Minnesota has more than 4,000 railroad grade crossings, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation says the state now averages about 36 rail-crossing crashes a year, with about five fatalities annually. In the early 1990s, MnDOT said Minnesota saw more than 100 automotive crashes and 10 fatalities per year at rail crossings.

Dent has faced a similar scare before. In January 2023, a train struck a pickup southeast of Dent after the truck became stuck on the tracks near Cozy Cove Road. In that crash, investigators identified the driver as a 66-year-old Dent man.

The latest collision remains under review, and no cause has been publicly resolved. For a town as small as Dent, even a crash that ends without injuries can leave a sharp reminder of how quickly a roadway and railroad crossing can become dangerous.