Woman survives being hit by train in Sebring

SEBRING (FOX 13) - Changes any one person will be hit by a train are low. Chances of being hit by a train and living to tell the tale are even lower.

A woman in Highlands County beat the odds Friday. The 34-year-old Sebring woman was hit by a train and then was able to call 911.

The spot on the tracks where she was hit is remote. Rescuers had to use GPS to find her. They knew it was not going to easy.

They had to scramble thru an orange grove and into the woods, a mile from the closest intersection.

From that desolate spot, the woman made this desperate call for help.

Victim: Please help me.

911 operator: Give me your address.

Victim: No, ma’am. I am by the train tracks and I can’t get up. The train knocked me down.

She told the operator she was in a lot of pain and couldn’t move her right side.

“I was right next to it when it passed by me and it knocked me down,” she tells the 911 dispatcher.

At that moment, her phone disconnected and another call came in from CSX, confirming her story.

“There was a person walking on the track that was struck by a train,” a worker tells 911.

The location was so isolated, all-terrain vehicles were used to go in and haul her out.

“She is pretty lucky because usually when a person and a train meet on the tracks, you don’t come out the other side of that,” said Scott Dressel with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

For whatever reason, this woman did.

The sheriff’s office is not releasing her name but says she was rushed to the hospital in serious condition.

Investigators are still trying to figure out why she was on the tracks, in the woods, before sunrise.