Spokane man avoids head-on with train

A 43-year-old Spokane man narrowly escaped serious injury or death Sunday morning after mistaking the BNSF Railway tracks in Marshall for a roadway.

Miles D. Matthews turned his 2002 Mercury Mountaineer off of Cheney-Spokane Road onto southbound Scribner Road about 2 a.m. but upon encountering the railroad tracks at the first curve he turned and tried to drive toward Spokane with one tire on a rail and the other in the rock roadbed.

The Mountaineer quickly became stuck in the loose rock. Matthews tried rocking it out of the hole he had dug, but to no avail. And about that time, a southbound freight train arrived and Matthews managed to jump and run from the vehicle just prior to the train hitting the Mountaineer head-on.

The impact totaled the Mountaineer. Investigating Spokane County Sheriff deputies arrested Matthews for driving while under the influence of alcohol and booked him into the Spokane County Jail.