A BNSF Railway spokesman says that a 3-year-old boy has been struck and killed by a freight train in northern Montana.
Gus Melonas of Burlington Northern Santa Fe says the train, en route from Minneapolis to Pasco, Washington, hit the toddler, identified as Colby Hawley, at about 10:30 on Saturday morning in Rudyard, located between Chester and Havre on the Montana Hi-Line.
Melonas said that the train crew threw the emergency brake and sounded a whistle upon seeing the boy on the tracks less than a mile west of a railroad crossing in town.
Melonas says BNSF officials with the Montana Highway Patrol and Hill County authorities are still investigating the incident.
