A person was hit by a freight train at the Superior St crossing in Albion Thursday morning.
23-year-old Ervin Hunter of Albion was riding a bike when they were hit by the engine of the train and dragged around 100 feet down the tracks. When officers arrived, he was found under the ninth freight car of the train.
Hunter was treated at the scene, then airlifted to Kalamazoo where he is listed in critical condition. He had at least one limb amputated by the collision.
Officials believe he was trying to beat the train, based on video froma nearby business. They believe he was on his way to work.
Anyone who may have witnessed the accident is asked to contact the Albion Public Safety at 269-781-0911.
NJ Transit presented two rather blunt public service announcements Friday with a simple plea: "Stay off the tracks." The goal is to reduce railroad fatalities.
Titled "You Don't Win" and "You're Dead," the ads that will begin running this weekend on broadcast and cable networks in Philadelphia and New York give dramatic, firsthand accounts from police and transit workers involved in recent fatalities and from the families of people who were killed.
Three deaths last fall were apparently part of a widespread problem on railroads in the region — people trespassing on tracks who are accidentally killed and those who enter the danger zone to commit suicide. In the last two years, at least 91 people have been killed by trains on NJ Transit and SEPTA lines, officials have said.
The videos can be found here: http://www.njtransit.com/rg/rg_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=SafetyTo
The woman killed Friday by a train has been identified.
According to the Caledonia police, Jocelyn M. Flashinski of Wauwatosa was killed after getting struck by a southbound Amtrak train Friday evening near 4 Mile Road and Highway H in Caledonia. Flashinski does have ties to the Racine area. She was 31.
Patch reached out to the Flashinski family, but relatives were too distraught to comment.
Police said Flashinski ran onto the tracks and that "the incident is not criminal in nature." The train was traveling from Milwaukee to Chicago.
Vince Patoka, a passenger on a northbound train from Chicago to Milwaukee that had to stop after the accident, told Patch that the conductor had been making announcements about every 20 minutes to apologize for the inconvenience.
Passengers were told there was an incident on the track ahead of their train that had no impact on passenger safety, Patoka said.
That train was able to pull into the Sturtevant station at approximately 8 p.m., and by 9 p.m. was going to be allowed to continue its journey north into Milwaukee.
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/RAR1201.pdf
If you're reading this story on your smartphone while walking, you're looking in the wrong place.
A growing number of communities are trying to get that message across to stave off pedestrian accidents that can happen when people walking become too engrossed with their phones.
This spring, Fort Lee, N.J., police began issuing $85 fines for careless walking, and the Utah Transit Authority made distracted walking around trains punishable by a $50 fine.
Delaware has taken a different approach, placing about 100 large stickers with the words "LOOK UP" on sidewalks near crosswalks in Wilmington, Newark and Rehoboth Beach, urging pedestrians to pay less attention to their phones and more to what's going on around them.
"Delaware may be breaking some new ground," says Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, which tracks state highway safety campaigns. "It's really an emerging issue."
Nabree Tilghman, 18, slowed his walk slightly to check his Android smartphone as he approached an intersection this week in Wilmington, Del.
"If you're aware of your surroundings, it's safe. You just have to be smart about it." said Tilghman, a student at Delaware Technical Community College.
Tilghman admits he has, on occasion, tripped while texting and crossing the street, but says he hasn't run into anyone or had close calls with a moving vehicle.
Others haven't fared as well. Research from Ohio State University showed cellphone use by pedestrians led to more than 1,000 emergency-room visits nationwide in 2008.
In March, a 45-year-old woman had to be rescued from Lake Michigan after she fell off a pier while texting and walking, police said.
"When people are talking on cellphones, texting or even listening to music, unfortunately, they're not as aware of what's going on around them," said Police Lt. Mark Farrall in Newark, Del.
As an aside, I think this initiative is partially ridiculous, except near railroad tracks and if you are walking along the many piers in Lake Michigan and happen to fall into umpteen feet of water.
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