EVANSVILLE, Ind. — According to a wire service, an Indiana train conductor was killed on Monday when a car attached to a CSX train backed over him, state police said.
Jerry W. Duncan, 52, of Evansville was hit around 3:05 a.m. CDT at the Atkinson Railroad Yard in Madisonville. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Hopkins County coroner.
Duncan was standing outside the car and operating a switch box as cars where dropping off their cargo, said Trooper Stuart Recke, a state police spokesman for the Nortonville Post.
The conductor controls what cars go where during unloading, and Duncan likely made a mistake, Recke said.
“He thought he had switched (directions) and he hadn’t,” Recke said.
The train, which had five engines and seven cars, was on its way to Evansville from Nashville, Tenn.
CSX could not be reached for comment on Monday.