A truck driver is lucky to be alive after his rig was hit by a CSX freight train in Rockland on Wednesday.

Police say the accident happened just before 7 p.m. at the Pine View Drive crossing in Orangeburg.

Officials say the northbound train hit the back end of the flatbed of a tractor-trailer. The truck driver, a 63-year-old resident of Tappan, says he thought the train was stopped. The 35-year-old engineer on the train says he was moving slowly while approaching the crossing and was sounding the train whistle.

Police officials say the private crossing needs some changes because there is no crossing gate. 

In 2013, a car carrier was split in two by a freight train at the same crossing.

The truck driver got a ticket for disobeying a signal indicating approach of a train.