A 49-year-old man escaped from his sport utility vehicle before it was rammed by a train in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Scottsbluff radio station KNEB reports  that Claude Shelby was driving north on a county road west of Scottsbluff on Tuesday morning when he swerved to miss a deer.

Authorities say Shelby’s SUV ended up stuck on tracks at a rail crossing. But he got out of his vehicle before it was hit by the eastbound coal train.