A Michigan man has been released from intensive care after remarkably surviving being struck by an Amtrak train going at 110 miles per hour.
Darryl See, 22, was hit by a Chicago-bound train as he walked along the tracks east of Michigan City on Friday.
According to reports the train sounded its horn a number of times but Mr See, who was listening to music at the time, failed to hear it.
He underwent surgery at Memorial Hospital in South Bend to put a plate in his neck and had several crushed vertebrae.
John Boyd of LaPorte County Police, told the Northwest Indiana Times that: "The conductor said it was a straight-on hit."
"It was absolutely amazing," he went on to tell NBC Chicago. "I've seen a number of people get hit by trains and it's never a good thing."
Mr Boyd told police it was the first time in his career he had heard of someone surviving such an accident. Police have estimated that the train was travelling at around 110 miles an hour when it hit Mr See. According to reports he was thrown 20 feet from the track.
Helen Hugley, Mr See's grandmother, told the Northwest Indiana Times: "He's going to make it. He says he doesn't remember anything until he woke up on the other side of the tracks."
Reader Comments
that an Amtrak train could go over 100 mph without derailing
The man must have been pushed away from the nose of the engine by the cushion of air built up from its speed, and barely touched by the train itself. If he'd been hit solidly by that train, the impact would have thrown his body much farther than 20 feet to one side. He's very lucky it was going so fast.
Getting thrown 20 or 50 feet to the side by a moving train seems far more survivable than being smashed into a bloodly sack of broken bones.
'According to reports the train sounded its horn a number of times but Mr See, who was listening to music at the time, failed to hear it.'
I think it's a symbolic message that living breathing Universe sends to us here. People are too distracted by the 'music' to hear the real signal (a loud horn). If we don't pay attention and don't stop believe lies, we'll get smashed. This man survived, but was badly hurt. Maybe, we still have a chance to see what's coming? The fact that 'he woke up on the other side of the tracks' doesn't look promising at all.