Young Girl Looses Leg When Run Over By Train

A young girl from the Houston area lost one of her legs and seriously injured the other when she was run over by a train Friday afternoon.

The girl, 11, and her friends were playing on train tracks behind their homes in a neighborhood east of Houston late Friday afternoon when a Union Pacific freight train ran over her legs, authorities said.

The girl and her four friends would stand on the tracks waiting for a train to pass, and then grab onto the side of the train when it came by, with their feet dragging behind them, said Lt. John Legg with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. They had successfully ridden a train prior but on their second attempt the girl slipped and was caught underneath the train, said officials.

She was transported by helicopter to the Texas Medical Center.

On Saturday the girl was listed to be in critical condition, said Alex Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. The girl’s name was not released, as Rodriguez said she was only authorized only to reveal the girl’s condition. It is unknown if surgeons are attempting to reattach the severed left leg.

Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza-Williams told said the crew of two men who were in the train locomotive never saw the girl and were not aware of the accident until they were contacted later by authorities.

The railroad is conducting an investigation. The speed limit on the track in the area where the accident occurred is 10 mph.

“This is devastating for our crew,” Espinoza-Williams said. “They have families and children. This affects them deeply.”