[csvset]

That is a strange picture. Why the blacked out portions? I don’t know why there would be a need for that.

[ltc8k6]

I believe there were trees in the way, so the photo is a composite that shows everything, which was not possible by just taking a photo.

[SubMareener]

I think I am beginning to see what happened. Here is a picture of the trailing engine just WEST of the crossing.

The whole rest of the train is to the left in the picture. The engineer's emergency braking slowed the train down enough so that the trash truck missed being on the center of the tracks. The lead engine clipped the back of the trash container with enough force to strip it from the truck bed and spin them both around. Counterclockwise seems correct. The gates do not appear to be damaged, so the truck had to drive on the wrong side of the road to get around the gates.

This is not an "accident" in any sense of the word.