Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Centralia police and aid were called just after midnight to the railroad tracks near East Summa Street after a woman was struck by a passing freight train.
Forty-four-year-old Brenda V. Jones-Gonzales survived with what the Centralia Police Department called non-life-threatening injuries. Jones-Gonzales was bending down when she was hit in the shoulder and head, according to police.
Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Terry Ternan said the woman was just next to the tracks about 200 feet south of the crossing when firefighters arrived, and able to talk.
“When we found her, she was sitting next to a pool of blood,” Ternan said. “She said she didn’t get hit, she thought she fell down.”
The patient had a serious laceration on her head, but her biggest complaint was her shoulder, he said.
Ternan said his understanding was the conductor on the northbound train had seen her bending over by the track and then stumble; they tried to slow down, they stopped and called 911.
They knew they hit her, he said.
Some hair found on the end of what’s sometimes referred as a cow catcher at the front of trains was believed to be hers, he said.
Jones-Gonzales was cited for criminal trespass for being on the tracks, according to police, and then released.
She was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital where she was treated and then was transferred to an undisclosed hospital.
It’s a good reminder of why it’s trespassing to walk along or cross train tracks in undesignated areas, Ternan said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter