Man phones for help after train severs his legs

updated 12:55 p.m. ET June 29, 2006

CLEBURNE, Texas - A rail yard worker who lost his legs when a train ran him over used a cell phone to report that he was trapped and had been “cut in two.”

Truman Duncan, 36, remained in critical condition Wednesday at a Fort Worth hospital after the Sunday accident at the Gunderson Southwest rail yard in Cleburne.

In a tape of the 911 call, Duncan tells the operator, “I need 911... I think I’m cut in two.”

“Someone got run over?” the operator asks.

“It was me,” Duncan responds. “I guess I’m going into shock. Hurry up, ma’am, because I’m about to pass out.”

Duncan and a co-worker were attempting to connect railcars when the accident occurred, according to a police report. Duncan may have been attempting to cross the tracks and was hit by the train, or he could have fallen from a car and been pulled under, police said.

Duncan’s call was followed by reports from other workers, police said.

It took rescue workers about an hour to find Duncan and free him from the tracks. One leg was caught between a steel wheel and brake and the other leg was caught on wheel and axle parts.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident in Cleburne, located about 50 miles southwest of Dallas.

Gunderson Southwest, based in Lake Oswego, Ore., repairs and refurbishes rail cars.

“We have assured ourselves that he is getting the best of medical care and that he is attended by his loved ones,” Gretchen Brask, an attorney for Greenbriar Leasing Corp., said in a written statement.

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