(The following story by Kevin Buey appeared on the Las Cruces Sun-News website on June 15.)
LA CRUCES, N.M. — A 58-year-old man sustained serious leg and foot injuries Thursday night when he became wedged in a space on a Union Pacific Railroad freight car and his feet dragged along track ties from outside El Paso to west of Deming.
The Luna County Sheriff’s Office reported Robert Ordaz, no address listed, was trying to help someone from a small compartment on the train when Ordaz fell.
The train had just left El Paso, according to the report, and did not stop until an area near Interstate 10 milemarker 55, around 7:30 p.m. The train traveled at a top speed of 60 miles an hour for some of what may have been a trip of more than an hour.
A UPRR spokeswoman said the train might have stopped on a siding as another train passed, delaying the westbound train, and also would have slowed in populated areas and likely was not traveling 60 miles an hour the entire trip.
The second man, unidentified in the initial report, was able to free himself and attract attention of personnel on an eastbound train, who made subsequently notified UPRR.
“Trains do travel incredibly fast,” said UPRR’s Zoe Richmond. “It takes up to a mile to stop.
“Riding on a train, with a train traveling 60 miles an hour is a situation where it is not only incredibly dangerous but incredibly illegal. It’s an unfortunate reminder that people and freight trains don’t mix.”
There are, Richmond said, a number of nooks and crannies on rail cars in which the two individuals may have become stuck.
Ordaz was attended by Deming Emergency Medical Service technicians and airlifted by helicopter to an El Paso hospital. The hospital was not identified in the LCSO report.
The New Mexico State Police and UPRR Police also responded to a call from UPRR dispatch at 7:47 p.m. Further reports were unavailable.
No medical report was available on Ordaz.