A 51-year-old Columbia man has been charged with DUI and illegal stopping or parking on railroad tracks after his unoccupied Porsche was struck by a train late Wednesday night in the Columbia bottoms.

Columbia Fire Department personnel and Monroe County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded in the steady rain about 10:15 p.m. to the crash. The mangled car, a 1990 Porsche, was found about one-half mile north of 2586 Bottom Road just west of the river levee.

Union Pacific Railroad officials said a man was seen walking along the tracks near the Bottom Road railroad crossing just before the northbound train collided with the Porsche. Columbia Fire Chief Mike Roediger, one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene, said the car was fully engulfed upon arrival.

A sheriff’s deputy on scene located the owner of the car, David B. Gower. 51, of Columbia, walking near the crash site. He was not injured in the crash. Police said his car was on the tracks about one-half mile north of the Bottom Road crossing when it was struck by the Union Pacific train and knocked off the tracks down into a field to the west. The train did not catch on fire.

Columbia firefighters extinguished the burning car and helped clean up the scene.

Police said Gower somehow drove onto the tracks north of Bottom Road, most likely from an access road along the Palmer Creel levee. His car was on the tracks facing south when it was struck by the train. Fortunately, Gower had exited the vehicle before it was struck.