The 20-year-old woman from Rapid City who lost her left foot early Friday morning was taking a short cut through a rail yard in Mandan, N.D., when the accident occurred, her aunt said Monday.
Rochelle Iron Cloud, who lives in Mandan, was walking home from a friend’s place around 2:30 a.m. Friday when she walked through the rail yard, said her aunt Wopilah Iron Cloud, speaking from Bismarck on Monday. Wopilah Iron Cloud said Rochelle was not feeling well enough to speak to the media.
Rochelle Iron Cloud heard voices yelling for her and she became frightened, her aunt said. A Mandan police report indicated those voices were employees trying to show her the way out. Rochelle attempted to crawl under connectors of three trains, but the third train began to move.
Rochelle tripped and her leg was caught in the tracks as the train started to roll, her aunt said, dragging her 20 feet before the leg detached. She then crawled back to her phone and called 911.
“She is a very strong person; I can tell you that,” Wopilah Iron Cloud said.
According to the report an officer arrived on scene to find Iron Cloud’s left leg still in its shoe and her left leg severed at the middle of the shin with the bone exposed.
BNSF Railway employees first called police around 2:30 a.m. to report a woman in the rail yard. According to the report, an employee tried to show her the way out, but she fled carrying a backpack.
As the Mandan police officer was on scene responding to the trespassing call, a police dispatch said a woman had called 911 saying her leg had been severed by a train. The officer said he could see “about 5 inches of bone sticking out from the stump of her skin.”
The officer then used a strap from his duty bag as a tourniquet until an ambulance arrived, according to the report. Officers said Iron Cloud smelled of alcohol.Alvin Iron Cloud Jr. said his daughter will be fitted for a prosthetic leg. Her leg was amputated about 3 inches below the kneecap.http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/walk-through-rail-yard-costly-for-former-rapid-city-woman/article_83794954-a3ca-11e1-bc0e-001a4bcf887a.html
No comments:
Post a Comment