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PHOENIX (AP) — An inattentive woman wearing headphones and eating taquitos survived being run over by a locomotive Thursday despite being surrounded by flashing lights and bells at a nearby railroad crossing while the engineer blared the horn, Phoenix police said.
The woman was struck as she walked on BNSF Railway tracks near the intersection of three major streets, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a police spokesman.
The first of two locomotives hit her and she fell between the rails but escaped being crushed by the wheels, police said. She lay in between the rails on the track while the train passed over her.
"What a lucky day for this woman," Crump said.
The woman was seriously injured and taken to a hospital, where methamphetamine was found in her possession, Crump said. Her identity was not released.
Police checked the locomotive's horn and the crossing signals and determined they were working properly, the sergeant said.
"It appears that the inattention" of the woman while she walked on the tracks caused the crash, Crump said.
The locomotives were apparently moving under the 20 mph speed limit for that section of the tracks, but the operator could not stop in time to avoid hitting the woman, Crump said.
She was struck by the pilot, a plow-shaped device attached to the front of the locomotive to deflect objects that could derail a train.
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