STEPHENSON COUNTY — An Illinois firefighter and delivery driver died in a truck vs. train crash Aug. 28 on a rural gravel road about five miles south of the stateline near Lena.

Colton Gritzmacher, 23, Belvidere, was ejected during the crash and pronounced dead at the scene, said Stephenson County Lt. Bradley Curtis.

Gritzmacher was a volunteer firefighter with the Boone County Fire Protection District 2. On Aug. 31, his fellow firefighters came to pick up his body at the Stephenson County Coroner’s Office and took him back to Boone County in a memorial procession.

The crash that killed Gritzmacher was reported at about 1:30 p.m. Aug. 28 on Baker Road north of Galena Road in rural Lena.

He was on the job and driving a delivery truck for a FedEx subcontractor when he drove in front of a westbound Canadian National Railway freight train, said Curtis. The train hit the driver side door of the 2018 Ford Econoline E350. The impact ripped Gritzmacher’s seatbelt and ejected him.

“We’re really unsure what the cause of this was. ... From the direction he was coming, he should have been able to see (the train),” Curtis said. “The data’s been taken from the train as far as its speed, and it’s all well within its guidelines.”

Two people were on the empty freight train, which stayed on the tracks. A loaded train would have taken up to a mile to come to a full stop, but because the train was empty, “it did get stopped fairly quickly,” Curtis said.

The CN Railroad Police, Lena Fire Department and Leamon’s Ambulance assisted deputies at the scene of the accident.