(The Herald-Sun published the following story by Susan Broili on its website on August 28.)
CARRBORO, N.C. — A 17-year-old Chapel Hill teen-ager counts himself extremely fortunate after falling from a Norfolk Southern freight train earlier this week.
The youth was treated and released from UNC Hospitals after the Wednesday incident, a hospital spokeswoman said.
“He’s about the luckiest boy you’ll ever meet,” his mother added on Thursday.
Despite the fact that he fell from the moving train and lay between the rails as the train continued on, his injuries consisted of scrapes and a gash under his armpit that required 20 stitches, his mother said.
She added that her son told her he got on the train at Chapel Hill High School because he had always wanted to ride one. He was in the process of getting off the train when he slipped between two cars filled with coal.
“The train went over him. He was terrified,” his mother said.
The incident happened on the railroad tracks behind Harris Teeter at Carr Mill Mall, Carrboro police said. Police helped emergency medical workers who treated the teen-ager at the scene and took him to UNC Hospitals.
The maximum speed limit for that branch of tracks is 10 mph and the train was slowing to a stop when the incident occurred at 4:05 p.m., said Susan Bland, manager of public relations for Norfolk Southern Corp.
Even though the train only consisted of an engine and nine cars, it still weighed thousands of pounds, Bland said.
“He’s very, very fortunate,” Bland said of the teen-ager.
Other people in the state have not been so fortunate, as the number of fatalities involving trespassers and trains has increased.
Anyone who walks or rides on or beside railroad tracks — and anyone who rides on anything but a passenger train for which they’ve bought a ticket — is trespassing because the tracks are private property, said Vivian Bridges, executive director of Operation Lifesaver, a Virginia nonprofit.
“We have a lot of problems with trespassing in North Carolina,” Bridges said.
Just this year, the state’s railroad trespass fatalities jumped to eighth in the nation. They ranked 20th last year, Bridges said.
While it’s not clear why those numbers have risen, in general, most people just don’t realize how dangerous it can be to trespass on railroad property, Bridges said.
It’s a misdemeanor to do so, and, light of the increased number of fatalities, railroad police plan to crack down on trespassing, she said.
Officers haven’t charged the youth involved in Wednesday’s incident.
Operation Lifesaver is trying to educate people about the dangers of being on or near the tracks, and has started a campaign to take the message to elementary and middle school students, Bridges said.
But people still jog, walk, ride four-wheelers and even rest and fall asleep on railroad tracks despite the fact that others who’ve done so have been killed when a train approached and they couldn’t get off the tracks in time, Bridges said.
“People tend to put on earphones,” she said of walkers and joggers. “Even if people are singing to themselves, they are not going to be able to hear the train.”
Two years ago, a group of UNC students actually built a wooden dolly with wheels to fit onto the railroad tracks and were out on the tracks at Estes Drive Extension at 1:30 a.m. when someone called to report them.
When interviewed at the time, UNC junior Justin Rodermond told The Chapel Hill Herald he and his friends planned to use the dolly to shoot the opening scene of a film.
Police squashed that idea when they arrived and told the filmmakers they were trespassing and that it was dangerous to be on the tracks.
“A train can come at any time from any direction,” Bridges said.
Trains can’t stop quickly, and the workers who operate them can’t see what’s happening behind the engine, she said.
People fishing off train trestles have also been killed, she said.
Jumping onto trains is also hazardous. Just as happened on Wednesday, “a person can fall underneath the wheels of the train,” Bridges said.
Hobos who jump into cars can die from heat or cold if the boxcar doors snap shut and trap them inside, Bridges said.
Walking, jogging or riding bicycles and four-wheelers beside the track can be hazardous too, because the train’s engine and cars extend three feet to either side of the tracks, she said.
Even touching a moving train can be dangerous, as a 42-year-old man discovered in Durham on July 28 when he slipped or was dragged underneath the train and sustained serious injuries as a result, Bridges said.
It’s getting even more dangerous as trains get faster and longer, she said.
“Our message is stay off, stay away, stay alive,” Bridges said.
More information on train safety is available at Operation Lifesaver’s Web site, www.oli.org.