AMERICAN FORK, Utah, Nov. 21, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah Transit Authority spokesman said a woman is lucky to be alive, with only minor injuries, after she ran in front of a TRAX train that was coming into a station in Midvale Wednesday afternoon.
The incident came just 10 hours after a man was airlifted a local hospital after being struck by a FrontRunner train in American Fork.
UTA spokesperson Carl Arky told Gephardt Daily the second incident happened as a northbound TRAX Red Line train was pulling into the Bingham Junction station at 7387 S. Bingham Junction Blvd, at approximately 4 p.m.
Arky said the train was going around 10 to 15 miles per hour, and the woman did not look and ran out in front of it. He said it appears the woman was crossing to the station to catch the train.
He said UTA employees who saw the incident assumed it was much more dire than it turned out to be.
“They thought she was dead,” Arky said. “And she got up and walked away. She is in alpha condition and has been transported to the hospital to be checked out. We are just happy it wasn’t a fatality.”
He said the woman was lucky that the train somehow hit her but only left her with minor injuries.
It was expected that a bus bridge would need to be activated but Arky that has not been necessary, though riders can expect a 10 to 15 minute delay between Fashion Place West and University Medical on northbound Red Line trains.
Wednesday morning, a man was crossing the tracks at American Fork Station at approximately 6:40 a.m. in an apparent attempt to reach the loading platform when he stepped in front of the slow moving train.
Arky said the man never looked up and walked right in front of the train.
The man was reported in extremely critical condition. By Wednesday afternoon, however, Arky said the man was alert and talking, but cannot remember the incident.
He added Wednesday afternoon that next week UTA will begin a campaign on safety when pedestrians are in the vicinity of trains.
He said riders should be aware, be alert, look around, don’t rush, don’t run, stand behind yellow lines when waiting for trains and ideally arrive around 10 minutes in advance of the train arriving.
“We know it’s a holiday and people have things on their minds, but these are trains,” Arky said.
For more train safety tips visit the UTA website here.
Gephardt Daily will update the story as more information becomes available.
