Man dies after train hits car in Winona County

An 88-year-old man is dead after his car was hit by a train over the weekend in Winona County.

Authorities say the crash happened around 9 a.m. Saturday in St. Charles, a town about 25 miles east of Rochester.

According to the St. Charles Police Department, Rex Herman was headed westbound on West 11th Street and approached the railroad crossing near the intersection with West 12th Street. He stopped between a stop sign and the tracks and then continued forward as the train was already 40 feet away.

The train struck Herman’s car on the driver’s side door, pushing it for several hundred feet down the tracks, police said. Emergency responders extricated Herman from the car, and an ambulance took him to a hospital in Lewiston, where he later died.

Witnesses told police the train was sounding its horn several times before the collision.

The railroad intersects with 11th Street at a sharp angle, and the train would have been approaching from behind Herman’s left shoulder, according to the view from Google Maps. Aside from the stop sign, there are no warning lights or crossing arms.