Two Die In Iowa Train Collision

Two freight trains collided head-on near Alton at about 11:30 Wednesday night, killing two people.

Mark Davis of Union Pacific said a freight train en route from Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn., to North Platte, Neb., collided with another train hauling empty grain cars.

Davis said a conductor and a contract van driver were killed in the accident. The collision occurred along Iowa Highway 60, about five miles south of Alton.

Six locomotives and about 20 rail cars were knocked off the tracks. Emergency crews put out a fire sparked by the crash, he said.

Davis said he did not yet know how the accident happened but said it's in a rural area where there's a side track and a main track.

Emergency crews were on the scene early Thursday.