Pedestrian killed by BNSF train in midtown Sacramento today
Author: Matt K
Date: 06-04-2011 - 20:01
From SACBEE.COM
Train kills man on tracks in midtown
By Carlos Alcala and Andy Furillo
A man with a beer and a Bible who may have been sitting on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near 20th and C streets in midtown was run over and killed by a train today.
Authorities did not release details on the death that was reported to Sacramento police at 2:17 p.m. One UP employee who asked not to be identified said the man had a 24-ounce can of beer and the Bible and was sitting in the middle of the tracks underneath a trestle when he was struck by the BNSF Railway three-engine, 4,500-foot train.
One witness said the engineer apparently saw the man from a block and a half away and tried to stop the train well before it struck the victim. Unable to come to a halt, the train dragged the man several dozen feet.
The train cut off east-west access across almost all of midtown for about two hours until coroner's investigators removed the body and UP and BNSF officials got the train moving north again.