The Polk County Medical Examiner has positively identified the driver who was killed after a fuel tanker truck collided with an oncoming CSX train Wednesday.

They have identified the man as Thomas O'Neal Ruff, of Lake Wales. His initial cause of death has been ruled as blunt force trauma, but the final autopsy results are pending.

The collision occurred just south of the intersection of State Road 60 and Bonnie Mine Road on property owned by the Mosaic phosphate company near Bartow.

According to a preliminary investigation, the Sheriff's office says they believe Ruff was driving a Peterbilt fuel truck and failed to stop at a stop sign at a CSX railroad crossing on Mosaic's property. Because the crossing is on private property, it is marked with a stop sign only and is not required by law to have railroad crossing gates and lights.

The 3,000-gallon tanker was carrying an undetermined amount of diesel fuel when it was hit by a CSX train consisting of an engine, three empty tank cars, and two empty feed tanks. The collision forced the truck onto its side.

Ruff was unable to get out of the cab.

See a slideshow from Wednesday's crash

According to  Polk County Fire and Rescue spokesman Brad Ruhmann, the train was not directly involved in the fire. Flames from the tanker were concentrated near the front of the train's locomotive.

Three people on the train were able to escape safely.

Emergency officials who responded to the scene said the fire was so intense they had no choice but to let it burn itself out.

"The problem with this fire was making sure we had the resources on scene to do it,'' said a fire official. "There's no water supply that's readily available here so we brought it in with tankers. The other problem was what was burning was petroleum fuel."