Napping Drunk Survives After Being Run Over By Train
Posted January 11, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s lucky, there’s stupid and then there’s a 20-year-old Australian man. He’s still alive and experts admit there’s no way he should be, after being run over by a train during a drunken escapade.
The alcohol hazed victim somehow fell asleep on the tracks at a place called Port Augusta in the southern part of the country, and dozed blissfully as a monstrous freight train came barreling towards him on Friday.
The startled conductor spotted the inert figure lying in his way at the last second and did everything he could to slow the iron horse down, pulling the emergency brake. But it was too late and the train, carrying 3000 tonnes of material, rolled over the victim. The driver then managed to bring the giant engine to a halt and ran out to check on the man he was sure he’d just killed.
And that’s when the drunk’s guardian angel took over. It turns out he’d been lying there dead to the world in the only position that guaranteed his survival, with just 30 centimetres – or less than a foot – of clearance space between the train and the drinker.
“It was probably lucky he was lying in such a way that the train actually went over him rather than across him,” agrees railway company G.M. Tony Aldridge, who calls the location for his siesta “not the best place” to take a nap.
But while it was incredible news, it turns out the victim didn’t quite escape all injury. He suffered a slight wound when he hit his head on the train while trying to get up.
He was treated in hospital and released. And considering what he’d just been through, he likely could have used a good stiff drink – although that’s what got him into trouble in the first place.
