Woman struck by train
Union Pacific crew: Sloan was walking along edge of tracks
A woman was hit by a train Monday morning in downtown Atlanta, Texas. Shalonda Sloan, 42, was taken to an area hospital, officials said.
Sloan was apparently walking on the edge of the railroad ties just after 8 a.m. Monday when a southbound Union Pacific train struck her near the Allday Street rail crossing, said Jeb Newkirk of the Atlanta Police Department.
Newkirk said Sloan was semiconscious at the scene.
“She was very lucky,” Newkirk said, adding that he had worked other train-related incidents in his career with a less-fortunate outcome.
Sloan was treated at the scene, then taken by an ambulance to an Atlanta hospital. She was then transferred to a Texarkana hospital, he said. Her condition is unknown.
Newkirk said the train was traveling about 40 mph, the speed limit required of all trains in Atlanta’s city limits.
The train crew reported seeing the woman and sounding the horn, Newkirk said.
The train’s engine stopped at the West Hirman Street rail crossing. Nevertheless, Sloan was struck by the train near the Allday Street crossing, said Kristen South, Union Pacific’s senior director of corporate communications and media relations. It came to a stop near the West Hiram Street crossing, roughly 500 yards away.
The train crew was not hurt and Union Pacific officials are working with local authorities to investigate. The train was en route to the Union Pacific yard in Livonia, La., at the time of the incident, South said.