Michigan police: Good Samaritan credited with slowing train, saving intoxicated man on tracks

Incident happened in Osceola County

Train spotted on railroad tracks where man was credited with alerting engineer of man laying on rails. ((Osceola County Sheriff's Office))

MARION TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Good Samaritan is being credited with helping to save a man who was laying on railroad tracks from an oncoming train in Northern Lower Michigan.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said they were called to the scene on Friday (Aug. 13) night to a report of an intoxicated man laying on the railroad tracks who had been hit by a locomotive engine in Marion Township.

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“A 50-year-old male from Marion had been laying down on the railroad tracks just south of 21 Mile Rd when a passerby, also from Marion, noticed a subject laying down on the railroad track,” police said.

When the passerby noticed the man laying on the tracks, a locomotive from Great Lakes Central Rail road was traveling north out of Marion. The train engineer saw the passerby’s truck and started to stop the train.

“As the train came to a stop the lead locomotive drove over top of the subject who was still laying on the tracks. The subject was able to crawl out from underneath the lead locomotive with non life threatening but possible severe injuries,” police said.

Police said the actions of the Good Samaritan alerted the train engineer, giving more time to stop the train and reducing potential injuries.

The subject was flown to the Traverse City Hospital via North Flight Aero Med. His condition is not currently known. The names of the men involved have not been released.


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