ROWLAND HEIGHTS - A truck driver from Perris was hospitalized today with minor injuries he suffered when his big rig's trailer was struck by a freight train a stretch of railroad tracks in Rowland Heights, causing the truck to spill its load of Nesquik chocolate powder, authorities said.

The crash at Nogales Street near Gale Avenue in the unincorporated community in Los Angeles County's San Gabriel Valley was reported at 6:19 p.m. Tuesday, according to the California Highway Patrol. The big rig was headed south on Nogales Street and was stopped on the tracks when its flatbed trailer, carrying a metal cargo container, was struck by Advertisement

[ Pala Mesa Resort ] the train's front engine, according to the CHP.

One of the Union Pacific train's cars caught fire, said Ed Pickett, a Los Angeles County Fire Department supervising dispatcher. Fire crews extinguished the fire, cleaned up the spill and took one person to a hospital, he said. The crash injured the truck's 52-year-old driver, a resident of Perris, according to the CHP, which reported that he was taken to St. Jude Medical Center in the Orange County city of Fullerton with minor injuries.

It was unclear why the semitrailer was on the tracks. The crossing is marked with signs and lights, according to the CHP.