Woman suffers serious head injury after getting hit by train Tuesday night, police say
A pedestrian has been hospitalized after being struck by a train in Centralia Tuesday evening.
The collision occurred at 9:57 p.m. near the East Chestnut intersection of the railroad tracks, according to a Centralia Police Department news release.
A train employee reportedly witnessed an adult woman laying near the railroad tracks just before the collision. The release says the woman sustained “obvious head injuries.”
Riverside Fire Authority personnel treated the woman at the scene and transported her to a local hospital, per the release. She was later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The Centralia Police Department used the release to stress the importance of railroad safety. Pedestrians and drivers are advised to only cross railroad tracks at authorized crossings and obey traffic signals.
“Walking on railroad tracks, at other than authorized locations, can be considered trespassing and is an arrestable offense,” the release says.
Police also warn that trains cannot come to a sudden stop while moving. An average freight train is about one to one-and-a-half miles long, per the release.
“If a train is traveling at 55 miles per hour, it can take over a mile to stop after the engineer had applied the emergency brakes,” the release says. “For everyone’s safety, pedestrians have to yield the right of way to the trains.”
