AUBURN – A man who believed he could cut through from Minot Avenue to the Hannaford Supermarket on Spring Street on Thursday night instead found his rental car hung up on railroad tracks in between.
A 911 dispatcher was credited with calling the railroad company in time to get a train stopped just before it passed through the area.
The mishap occurred at about 7 p.m. Police said the driver of the rental car was from another state and was traveling with his wife and child at the time. His name was not available while the incident remained under investigation.
The man said as he drove along Minot Avenue, he believed he could cut through the Agren Appliance lot to reach the grocery store on the other side.
Before he realized his mistake, he found his car stuck in the snow and ice along the tracks behind Agren. The man said he dialed 911 and an emergency dispatcher quickly put him on hold to alert the railroad company.
“When I got there, the train was just rolling up,” said Auburn police Officer Art Brown.
The driver and his family got safely out of the car. The train stopped near Elm Street, just short of the spot where the car was stuck on the tracks.
A driver from Anytime Towing surveyed the scene and decided the best way to haul the car from the path of peril was from Court Street. Halfway between Agren and Court Street, however, the car slipped across a track and became stuck again.
Brown and the tow truck driver found a new spot to hook the vehicle and repositioned it on the tracks before hauling it out to the street. The entire operation took roughly 30 minutes. Police blocked off a section of Court Street for about five minutes as the car was towed onto the street.
The car was deemed damaged but driveable. The man who had been driving it said he had come to Maine from the South to make funeral arrangements for a family member who died in recent days. He declined to give his name.
“He’s had a really rough week,” Brown said. “I feel bad for him. And the way it happened was understandable.”
Police said other drivers have mistaken the Agren lot as a throughway from Minot Avenue and the grocery store, particularly on rainy nights when visibility is poor.
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