A 37-year-old Brainerd man died Tuesday morning after a westbound freight train struck his vehicle at a rural railroad crossing in Cass County, marking the second fatal vehicle-train collision at that exact intersection in a little over three years. The Minnesota State Patrol identified the driver as Keith Michael Donovan, who was the sole occupant of the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze he was driving northbound when the crash happened around 6:27 a.m. at the West Gull River Road Southwest crossing near Highway 210 in Sylvan Township.
Donovan was attempting to cross the tracks to reach Highway 210 when the train hit his car, according to FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul. Responders arrived to find the train stopped nearby and Donovan's vehicle on the south side of the tracks; he was pronounced dead at the scene. State Patrol crash records show Donovan was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact, though the vehicle's airbags deployed, and that road conditions were dry during the early-morning crash.
Firefighter Crawled Under Train to Reach Driver
Pillager Area Fire & Rescue reported that one of its firefighters crawled under the stopped train in an effort to reach Donovan, per a post from the department relayed by FOX 9. The Cass County Sheriff's Office and North Ambulance also responded alongside the fire department and state troopers, according to Minnesota State Patrol crash updates, with the scene falling near the border of Cass and Crow Wing counties.
The crossing where Donovan died relies on crossbuck warning signs rather than automated gate arms, as local reporting from KAXE has noted. That detail carries added weight given the crossing's history: a 53-year-old Moorhead man was killed at the same West Gull River Road Southwest crossing in April 2023 when his vehicle was struck on the tracks by a train, according to Lakeland PBS. Both fatal wrecks involved passenger vehicles hit by freight trains running along the corridor parallel to Highway 210.
A Corridor With a Deadly Track Record
The rail line running through Sylvan Township and Cass County is operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway for freight transit, according to Cass County government records. It is the same general stretch of Highway 210 where Hoodline previously reported on a deadly left-turn crash near Pillager in February that also drew a response from Pillager Area Fire & Rescue and the Cass County Sheriff's Office.
Statewide, Minnesota oversees more than 4,000 public railroad grade crossings, and the state has averaged 36 vehicle-train collisions and five fatalities per year in recent decades, per the Minnesota Department of Transportation. That is a marked improvement from the early 1990s, when crossing collisions topped 100 per year, but the danger at unprotected crossings remains severe. A collision between a motor vehicle and a train is 11 times more likely to result in death or severe injury than a standard highway crash, according to state transportation safety reports cited by Bring Me The News.
What the Law Requires — and Why Trains Can't Stop
Under Minnesota Statute 169.26, drivers approaching a railroad crossing are required to stop at least 10 feet from the nearest track whenever warning signals are active or a train is plainly visible, with violations treated as misdemeanors, according to the Minnesota Legislature. The law applies regardless of whether a crossing has automated equipment, since even fully alert drivers can misjudge an oncoming train's speed and distance.
That miscalculation is especially dangerous because trains cannot stop quickly. A fully loaded freight train moving at 50 mph needs roughly 1.5 miles to come to a complete stop even after emergency brakes are applied, according to safety guidance reported by Radio Mankato. It remains unclear whether MnDOT or BNSF have evaluated the West Gull River Road Southwest crossing for potential gate upgrades, or whether Sylvan Township officials have pushed for safety improvements following the two fatal crashes at the site.
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