Oil train severs trespasser's leg (05-05-2013 Portland)

[markhb]

The Press Herald story.

PORTLAND — A 19-year-old Portland man’s leg was severed early Sunday evening when he was struck by a Pan Am freight train in the city’s Riverton section, police said.

The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. near the end of Harris Avenue.

Police said they did not know why the man was on the railroad tracks.

From personal observation, it appears to be an oil train. I don't know if it was EB or WB at the time of the accident.

[MEC407]

The PPH article has been updated to include the following:

Police told The Associated Press that it appears the man was trying to hop onto the train.

[MEC407]

Another update:

The 19-year-old Portland man whose leg was severed early Sunday evening by a Pan Am Railways freight train had jumped onto the train, then fell off it, police said.
. . .
Matthew Morris, 19, of Portland, is expected to survive, but one leg was amputated at the knee and the other leg is seriously injured, police said.

[MEC407]

From the Bangor Daily News:

Matthew Morris, 19, had been walking along the railroad tracks in the Riverton neighborhood, where the freight train had stopped to allow the Amtrak Downeaster to pass, when he and a friend decided to jump aboard one of the railroad cars, Portland City Spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said Monday.

About 6:20 p.m., Morris fell from the train and was run over by it, causing one leg to be severed at the knee and the other to be seriously injured, Clegg said.

Read more at: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/05/06/n ... ght-train/

[MBTA F40PH-2C 1050]

foolish

[markhb]

Press Herald story on the first people who were there to help.

Boys, women, officer team up to save life after Portland train accident

Gribbin-Bouchard, an athletic trainer at McCauley High School in Portland, grabbed a towel and two belts and ran toward the tracks, through the woods near her house. On the way, she shouted to her neighbors to call 911.

...

When Gribbin-Bouchard arrived, another woman, Adriane Williams, was trying to use a boy's T-shirt as a tourniquet. Gribbin-Bouchard strapped the belts around Morris' leg and Williams helped keep them tight.

Within a few minutes, Portland police Sgt. Michael Rand arrived and applied a specially made tourniquet to control the bleeding. Rand, a member of the department's Special Reaction Team, carries a tourniquet kit while on duty.