AMITE — Tangipahoa Parish officials urged caution at railroad crossings Thursday after a motorist was killed in a collision with a passenger train.

Dorian Batiste, 22, died when the southbound City of New Orleans hit the front end of a pickup truck in which he was riding Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff's office said. Batiste was thrown from the truck. The driver of the truck had minior injuries, and a train passenger suffered a panic attack, the sheriff's said.

The north-south Canadian National line through Tangipahoa Parish crosses 46 streets and roads, and Wednesday's crash occurred at one of four that don't have either warning lights or a physical barrier.

"While this railroad crossing does not have lights and arms, it does have various signs posted on both approaches to the tracks," the sheriff's office said. It said drivers who approach crossings without lights or gates should take additional time to look both ways before crossing.

Deputies were also looking into whether the eastbound truck had a brake malfunction while turning off U.S. 51 and onto Ponders Quarters Lane, which cross the railroad tracks.

Each year, the Federal Railroad Administration rates the nation’s railroad crossings on the risk for accidents — basing their figures on traffic counts, train speeds and warning devices, among other things. 

At the four crossings along the Amtrak route that only have crossbucks or a stop sign – like the site of Wednesday’s fatal collision -- an average of 540 vehicles cross in a typical day.

Among Louisiana’s 2,708 crossings, the one on Airline Highway near Choctaw Drive consistently tops the rankings. As of Wednesday, the Canadian National crossing at Ponders Quarters Lane was ranked 69^th. Two other Tangipahoa crossings without gates or lights were in the top 153.

The other crossing without lights was much farther down the list because about two cars cross every hour.