A train hit and killed a person in a sleeping bag on the railroad tracks in District 10, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday.
Deputies responded to a call from a Union Pacific Railroad representative, who said a train struck the person at about 8 p.m. Friday.
Deputies said they arrived at the tracks about three-quarters of a mile east of Highway 70 on Ellis Road and found a body about 100 feet north of the road.
The victim will have to be identified through dental records or fingerprints, according to deputies.
Two conductors and an engineer aboard the southbound train told deputies they saw a red object on the tracks as they approached the Ellis Road intersection.
“As soon as they saw the red material item, they sounded the horn,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Allan Garza. “And as they got closer, they observed something moving. They hit the emergency brakes, but they weren’t able to stop in time.”
Deputies estimated the train was traveling at about 40 mph.
Call the coroner and tell them to bring the blotter out and also call the fire department and tell them we need a hose down so we can rinse all of the decesased into the body bag.
If you go back and read the original news report, the engine crew reported that they saw some movement within the sleeping bag prior to impact. I think some homeless individual merely chose to bed down on the track for what ever reason.
I don’t envy the coronor and who ever else got stuck with having to pick up the mangled remains. I doubt that I myself would have the stomach for that kind of work.
Within the last few years there was a similar incident in which three people were killed by a train, and they too were sleeping on the track…Although I am unable to remember where and when it happened. These people would probably be alive today if they had any brains and a little bit of common sense.[banghead][banghead][banghead]
Well the good news is, if he had slept out on the train line by my house, he would have frozen to death long before a train hit him. It was -25F when I got up this a.m.[:O]
It was rumored for alot of years that sleeping between the rails would fend off rattlesnakes, so alot of illegal imigrants would sleep there only to be awakened by a horn and a headlight!
Why wouldn’t he? You’re trying to rationalize it from the viewpoint of a rational person. Something tells me, if you sleep on the tracks in a sleeping bag, you’re not in the right frame of mind to be thinking rational. It’s sad, but a lot of people, for one reason or another, aren’t always thinking clearly. For reasons unknown at this point, this person wasn’t.