BRYAN, Texas -- Two Union Pacific engineers were injured Saturday when they jumped off a train they thought was about to collide with a tanker truck, the Bryan-College Station Eagle reports.

As it turned out, the train missed hitting the truck but not by much.

College Station Police Sgt. Donnie Andreski said the Timmons Trucking tanker truck was westbound on Harvey Mitchell Parkway South just after 1 p.m. and was approaching the railroad crossing at Wellborn Road when the crossing arms started to descend.

The driver, Kenneth Morris Woodworth of Caldwell, tried to stop but the truck's brakes locked. His truck slid through the railroad crossing, crashing through the warning arms.

"While he's doing this, his truck goes into a 180-degree spin, and he comes to a stop on the west side of the tracks facing east," Andreski said. "This is an assumption, but it looks like he lost his orientation because he began to drive back through the railroad crossing."

The Union Pacific engineers saw the truck moving slowly across the tracks, and locked the train's brakes and jumped off, Andreski said.

They knew if they hit it that it would explode if it was carrying gasoline, so they jumped off, he said. The train slid to a stop and just missed hitting the truck by a couple of seconds.

The tanker actually was carrying diesel fuel.

Both engineers were taken to local hospitals. On of them was in stable condition at St. Joseph Regional Health Center. Andreski did not know the name of the other engineer or where he was taken. The driver of the truck kept going after the train came to a stop, but witnesses gave police the truck's description and license plate number. Woodworth later was cited for failing to stop at a railroad crossing, a Class C misdemeanor, Andreski said.

Police are still investigating Woodworth's leaving the scene, he said. The train blocked several crossings around Texas A&M University for about an hour until another crew from Union Pacific could replace the two engineers, Andreski said.

"The whole episode was unusual," Andreski noted. "This is the first I've ever heard of the engineers jumping off the train."