‘They’re (trains) a little taller than what you might think’ : Man Escapes Death When Train Rolls Over Him

LANCASTER —  A 25-year-old man miraculously suffered only minor injuries Saturday when a freight train ran over him in Lancaster, authorities said.

Manuel Carrillo of Lancaster was lying on the tracks near Sierra Highway and Avenue I when a Southern Pacific freight rolled over him about 10 a.m. Saturday, said Ed Grantham of the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“They’re (trains) a little taller than what you might think,” Grantham said.

Carrillo was listed in fair condition Saturday afternoon at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated for a small head laceration he may have suffered before the train arrived.

“Apparently . . . he was intoxicated and stumbled and fell and hit his head on the rail and just laid down inside of the train track, and the train ran directly over him without touching him,” a hospital spokeswoman said.

Grantham said the engineer saw Carrillo on the tracks but was unable to stop the train, which was traveling about 45 m.p.h.

“It takes about a mile to lock up the train and they went completely over him,” Grantham said.

The scalp laceration must have been due to a fall, because “if the train had hit him, it would have killed him,” Grantham said.

Carrillo’s brush with death occurred about a mile from the site of the apparent suicide Friday night of an unidentified 25-year-old man who ran into a moving Southern Pacific train, authorities said.

That incident occurred about 11:20 p.m. Friday near Sierra Highway and Avenue J in Lancaster.