A man from New Hampshire, who authorities say was laying on a railroad track, is dead after he was run-over by a train Tuesday morning.
The deceased man was identified by authorities as William Josh Cameron, 28, of Concord, New Hampshire.
Lake City Police Department officers were dispatched to the Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad near the intersection of Northwest Dixie Avenue Tuesday morning at 3:55 a.m. regarding an accident involving a train and a pedestrian, according to information from a Lake City Police Department press release.
Once they arrived at the scene, officers were directed to an area by railroad employees where they found Cameron.
Sgt. Mike Lee, a Lake City Police Department public information officer, said the area where the incident occurred is an area where the railroad company has a strip of property with several rail spurs where the trains couple and uncouple cars in the area, but the collision happened on the main line.
“This morning a train was running through at a low speed and as they passed the intersection of Dixie [Avenue], going westbound, they noticed a person laying in the tracks,” he said. “But with visibility in the train, by the time they saw him, they immediately started braking but they were not able to stop the train prior to colliding with the subject.”
Lee said employees on the train blew the horn and used other warnings in an attempt to get the victim’s attention.
“[He] did not react to those and the train essentially ran him over,” he said.
Railroad company employees contacted law enforcement regarding the accident.
“The train, obviously saw him immediately before the collision — not with enough time to avoid the collision, but they were well aware they had struck a person,” Lee said. “They immediately made contact through communication service to notify us of the collision.”
The incident is being investigated by the LCPD and Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad and Lee said the Medical Examiners Office in Jacksonville.
“The Medical Examiners Office out of Jacksonville is going to do a autopsy report on the deceased because at this point we don’t know was he drunk and passed out on the tracks, was he asleep on the tracks, is it possible that he was already deceased before he got hit,” Lee said.
Authorities are not sure how long Cameron has been in the area.