BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
DANVILLE — The coroner's office released the name of a teenager killed in a truck-train accident Wednesday night.
Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson identified the deceased as 18-year-old Cory D. Piehl from Henning. The preliminary report from the autopsy, conducted Thursday morning, showed he died from multiple injuries of the head and chest.
Piehl was pronounced dead just after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the scene of the accident on West Newell Road, just west of Bowman Avenue.
Capt. Dennis Wood of the Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department said on Thursday that video taken from the train backs up the description given by a woman who witnessed the accident.
According to accident reports, Piehl was driving a 1978 Chevrolet pickup truck eastbound on West Newell Road when the accident occurred.
The witness told deputies she had followed the pickup truck for some distance and although the truck was going slowly as a result of the weather, the woman noticed no erratic driving.
Roads were considered slick throughout the area as a result of snow that had been falling most of the day.
The witness told deputies the crossing lights and gate activated on the railroad tracks west of Bowman Avenue. The truck’s brake lights also came on, according to the witness, but the truck did not stop in time and was struck by a train.
Wood said Piehl died instantly as a result of the crash and had to be extricated from the truck by emergency personnel from the Bismarck Fire Protection District.
