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TRAX passengers watched helplessly Monday morning as a semitrailer pulled in front of their train, causing a collision that shut down a Salt Lake City intersection.

The crash occurred around 9:45 a.m. near 600 East and 400 South on the University line, said Utah Transit Authority spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware. No injuries were reported.

The truck driver was headed west on 400 South and apparently turned left onto southbound 600 East in front of the train, which had just started pulling away from a nearby platform, said Bohnsack-Ware.

TRAX passenger Tiffany Montoya said those aboard the train could see the wreck coming as the lettering on the Ace Hardware semitrailer inched closer to the windows just after the train pulled out.

"We knew there was a semi there but we didn't think he was dumb enough to turn," said Montoya, who was riding the train to the Main Library.

The collision tipped the train onto one set of wheels for a moment, and then the train slammed back onto the tracks, Montoya said.

"I was petrified," she said.

The truck driver, Paul Madison of Colorado Springs, Colo., said he knew the train was there but it was sitting still when he decided to make a slow, left turn toward the Ace store on 400 South. He was delivering lawn mowers and garden implements.

"It was stopped when I went by [it]," Madison said. "It caught up."

Madison spoke to Salt Lake City police and said he believed he would be ticketed for making an illegal turn. Signs at the intersection, both on the train's power pole and the overhead lines, prohibit left turns across the tracks onto southbound 600 East.

Madison, who works for Ace, said he delivers to Salt Lake Valley stores weekly but had never been to the 400 South store before.

Police blocked traffic through the intersection, and UTA asked TRAX passengers to walk around the wreck and board other University line trains on the other side.

The intersection was closed for more than two hours, dispatchers said.

The accident crunched the train's windshield and buckled one side of the car. It left the truck wedged against the train with one of its front tires off the ground, along with all four of the tractor's left rear wheels. No detailed damage estimate was immediately available, though Utah Transit Authority spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said it would run into the tens of thousands of dollars.