By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – A teen has been hit by a train here for the second time in three months.
A 16-year-old Wyandotte boy was hit by a Western Canadian National train about 11:45 p.m. May 11 on the railroad tracks about 450 feet north of Oak Street, Police Chief Daniel Grant said.
Grant said a cow catcher on the train pushed the boy off the tracks; he was thrown from the tracks and suffered a laceration to the back of his head. Police are not releasing his name.
“He went flying quite a ways,” Grant said. “The fact that he even survived was quite remarkable.”
Grant said the boy, who is listed in good condition at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, had been laying down on the tracks, but police are not sure why, as they have not yet interviewed him.
Grant said the boy was alert and talking when police and paramedics responded.
This is the second incident of a boy being struck by a train this year. Fourteen-year-old Jacob Marion was struck Feb. 28 while walking down railroad tracks near Oak and Ninth and wearing headphones.
Grant said he doesn’t believe the incidents are attributed to a lack of security on the tracks, as people are often removed and ticketed for trespassing on them.
“It’s unfortunate,” Grant said. “We try to remind people. We have school programs about the danger of being around railroad tracks and we tell them its a violation of the law.”