WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A man has been killed after being hit by a train in south Wichita on the early morning of Saturday, Oct. 1.
According to Wichita Police Department (WPD) Sergeant Christopher Mains, the department received two calls regarding the crash.
Mains said the first call came in from Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), a railroad company, at 2:47 a.m.
“BNSF reported hearing, I guess, a thump. They thought they had hit an object, it was an unknown object,” Mains said. “They stopped the train. They requested officers out to assist in clearing the tracks.”
According to Mains, officers did not locate anything, so they cleared the tracks.
At 3:20 a.m., Mains says the WPD received another call from the BNSF reporting that they saw somebody on the tracks at the intersection of S Southeast Dr & E Pawnee St.
The train could not stop in time, according to Mains. A 20-year-old man was found dead.
“We don’t know if he was trying to cross, we don’t know if he was on the tracks, or just laying on the tracks,” said Mains. “We just, at this point, don’t know a lot of information as to why he was there.”
Mains says he is not sure if the first train was the one to hit the man.
“It’s highly possible. I mean, until they look at the video and the train, which will be at some time later, they won’t know exactly what happened,” he said.
KSN will provide more information as it becomes available.