BLAINE COUNTY, Idaho — An Idaho truck driver is dead and his passenger is in critical condition after a train struck his big rig on Friday, Dec. 29.
According to the Bannock County Coroner’s Office, 46-year-old Efrain Juarez-Ramirez of Rupert, Idaho, was pronounced dead at the hospital. His passenger, identified only as a 48-year-old female, sustained life-threatening injuries.
Police said the wreck happened at around 2:32 p.m. when Juarez-Ramirez’s 2015 white Freightliner semi-truck, owned by the 3 String Cattle Company, was traveling southbound on Yale Road and failed to yield to the oncoming train at the crossing.
The Union Pacific train was traveling east and struck the passenger side of the semi-truck. Neither occupant of the truck was wearing a seatbelt, and both were ejected, police said.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
They just don’t make trucks like they used-2.
always yield seatbelts good idea