A 34-year-old man fell and was dragged 100 yards to his death after trying to leap onto a freight train in Fort Collins just after midnight Saturday.
The name of the victim has not been released, pending notification of family members, said Scott Crumbaker, Fort Collins police spokesman.
Engineers aboard the 103-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe train told police they began to stop the train when they spotted a man jump onto the seventh car behind the engine at 12:04 a.m. near the intersection of Laurel and Mason streets, authorities say.
The train was traveling about 10 mph at the time, train spokesman Steve Forsberg said.
“Usually people try to grab onto a ladder and pull themselves up,” Forsberg said. “He must have slipped in some way.”
The man went under the wheels of the car, which can weigh more than 100 tons, and was dragged about 300 feet, authorities said.
The train came to a stop just south of Prospect Road and College Avenue, Crumbaker said. The man was pronounced dead near the tracks.
