BERNIE, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff man lost his life Tuesday morning when he pulled into the path of a southbound Union Pacific train just south of Bernie.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Kenneth L. Simpson, 50, of Poplar Bluff was westbound on Zimmerman Lane just east of Highway 25 shortly before 8 a.m. and failed to yield to the train. Simpson was driving a trash truck for Republic Services out of Dexter. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the wreck.
Simpson was taken by ambulance to SoutheastHEALTH Center in Dexter where he was pronounced dead at 10:31 a.m.
The driver of the locomotive, who was uninjured, was 56-year old Ulysses S. Grant of North Little Rock, Ark.
Responding to the wreck were Bernie Police, the Highway Patrol, Stoddard County Sheriff's Department and Malden Police and Stoddard County EMS.