(The following story by Melody Brumble appeared on the Shreveport Times website on May 28.)
SHREVEPORT, La. — A Shreveport man faces a trespassing charge after being hit by a train on a trestle in downtown Shreveport this morning.
Kenneth Priest, 44, was headed west on the trestle over the Red River when a Kansas City Southern freight train rolled up behind him. He was heading home from Bossier City, said Scott Wolverton, an assistant chief with the Shreveport Fire Department.
Priest tried to outrun the train but couldn’t. The lead engine hit him, knocking him under the train, Wolverton said.
Priest ended up face down, head to the west, on the railroad ties, squeezed under the bottom of a railcar. He wasn’t pinned between the wheels and rails.
“He was conscious, alert and talking to us,” Wolverton said.
Firefighters spent about an hour and a half freeing Priest from under the train. An ambulance took Priest to Willis-Knighton North to be checked for head and neck injuries.
Priest will receive a summons for trespassing on railroad property, said Kacee Hargrave, Shreveport Police Department spokesman.