Boy, 12, Hit by Train, Seriously Injured
A 12-year-old Whittier boy was seriously injured on a railroad bridge Saturday after he failed to leap out of the way of an oncoming train moving at 50 m.p.h.
Victor Mendez was listed in guarded but stable condition at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, where he was treated for a fractured skull and a broken leg, said hospital nursing supervisor Laurie Poppe.
Authorities said the accident occurred at 2:15 p.m. as Mendez and two other friends were playing on the bridge, located south of Beverly Boulevard in an unincorporated area near Whittier.
The three boys were in the middle of the span crossing the San Gabriel River when a locomotive towing two other locomotives approached from the east, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Mel Savage.
The conductor blew a horn at the boys and the brakeman ran to the front of the train, yelling for the youths to jump to a catwalk on their left.
“Two of them did jump, but the third apparently froze,” Savage said. “It was like a rabbit getting caught in somebody’s headlights. He just froze and it only took a few seconds.”
Savage said Mendez was caught on a protective grill on the front of the train and carried to the end of the bridge before he fell off.
Train speeds of 50 m.p.h. are not uncommon in the area, he added.
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