Man Hit by Train Survives, but the Train Suffers Damage

A drunken man sitting on railroad tracks was struck by an oncoming freight train going 35 m.p.h. Tuesday and escaped with moderate injuries--but the train suffered some damage, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.

“To even be alive, he had to have an angel on his shoulder,” said Fire Capt. Ronald Hayton.

“He is one really lucky individual,” Hayton said of Daniel Martinez, 42.

Martinez was seen stumbling, apparently under the influence of alcohol, toward the tracks near Avenue I and Sierra Highway, and he began drinking again as he sat on the tracks, Hayton said.

As the Southern Pacific train headed toward him at about 4:15 p.m., “he couldn’t get off the tracks fast enough,” Hayton said. “He kept trying to get up as the train came, and at the last instant, the engine of the train struck him and he fell forward.”

Martinez was hit in the back and thrown several feet from the tracks, authorities said.

He was in fair condition Tuesday night at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The train originated near Sacramento and was headed to west Colton in San Bernardino County, said Southern Pacific Railway spokesman Mike Furtney. It included four locomotives, 64 loaded cars and 41 empty cars, he said.

The drawbars between some of the cars broke when the engineer slammed on the brakes in an effort to avoid hitting Martinez, Hayton said. The disabled train blocked the track for several hours until the drawbars could be repaired, he said.