Arizona Teen Hit by Train Slowly Returns to Near-Normal Life
(Kingman, Arizona – June 6, 2011)
An 18-year-old Kingman, AZ man finally returned home and to work after a lengthy recovery and numerous surgeries after a collision with a train broke every bone in his face as well as his pelvis, femur and one ankle.
Adrian Alatorre, on foot, had been waiting for a westbound train to pass on his way to deliver a plate of brownies to a co-worker who had “experienced a bad day” when an eastbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train struck him from the opposite direction. The crossing at that location had been closed to traffic a few years early.
Alatorre has little memory of the collision except for the pain of an incisor being driven into his nasal cavity, and was heavily sedated during two weeks at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas and an additional three weeks at a residential rehabilitation center before he could return to Arizona to continue his road back to health.
“Designated public crossings with either a crossbuck, flashing lights or a gate are the only safe points for pedestrian crossing,” said BNSF Railroad Spokeswoman Lena Kent, adding sympathetically that “If you cross at any other place, you are trespassing and can be ticketed or fined.”
