BY ANDY TAYLOR

INDEPENDENCE — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department and Union Pacific Railroad are investigating a vehicle-train collision southwest of Independence late Thursday that resulted in two deaths.

Dead are the driver, William Anthony Bogart, age 16, of 3622 CR 4300, Independence, and the passenger, William Allen Bogart, age 57, of 3522 CR 4300, Independence. They were fatally injured when the passenger side of the Bogart’s 1995 Dodge pickup truck was struck by a northbound Union Pacific train at a crossing west of county road intersection 3500 and 3600, which is about one mile east of the Cessna Aircraft Company assembly plant.

The force of the impact caused the train engine to drag the truck about 100 yards north of the crossing.

A Montgomery County Chronicle staff member at the scene of the collision said the crossing was marked with standard railroad warning signals, also called crossbucks. However, the signals are not illuminated nor contain the warning gates that are found on high-volume roads and highways.

More details of the collision will be posted here as they become available.

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