MERIDIAN, Miss. — A man riding on a freight train that derailed Thursday died from injuries he received in the wreck, reports the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
Lauderdale County medical examiner Marl Cobler said Jackie Lee Hamrick, 54, of Campobello, S.C., died from massive head trauma suffered during the derailment.
Hamrick, who was an unauthorized passenger on the Kansas City Southern Railroad freight train, was found under a load of logs the train was hauling.
Jerry Harmon, the general superintendent with Kansas City Southern Railroad’s transcontinental division, said Hamrick had been traveling in an empty, covered hopper car on the train.
Harmon said railroad officials will investigate to determine the cause of the derailment.
The train, 65 cars long, was traveling from Meridian to Shreveport, La.
Neither the conductor nor an engineer, the only other two people aboard, were injured.
About 500 feet of track damaged from the derailment was being replaced Friday as overturned cars were removed from the wreckage.