PENDLETON — A Union Pacific train stopped for hours Friday, Feb. 7, just outside Pendleton after hitting a pickup parked too close to the railroad tracks.

The train, which had been traveling west, was moving about 30 mph when it hit the pickup at about 10:30 a.m. near McKennon Road. No people were injured in the crash, according to an engineer with Union Pacific.

“Somebody parked too close to the track,” he said. “I haven’t been on the other side of the track to see, but it just basically broke a tailgate, nothing major.”

The engineer said the vehicle belongs to an employee of Rocky Mountain Colby Pipe. It was “definitely” parked less than 4 feet from the tracks, he said, as that’s the closest distance Union Pacific employees are allowed to park to tracks so trains don’t hit their vehicles.

Any time a train hits a vehicle, the crew has to be replaced. Waiting on a relief crew takes time. The engineer said he wasn’t sure how long it would be before the train was moving, but the stop lasted more than an hour. By 1:30 p.m., it had moved on.