By Martha Deller
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH, Texas — A BNSF Railway conductor fell off a train Tuesday afternoon and was rescued by Fort Worth firefighters from a railroad trestle above the Trinity River near Northeast 23rd Street.

The conductor, whose identity has not been released, was flown to John Peter Smith Hospital for treatment of a severe head injury, said Lt. Kent Worley, Fire Department spokesman.

Worley said he does not know what caused the fall. BNSF spokesman Joe Faust said the train's engineer got separated from the conductor, then looked down and saw his partner on the bridge. Faust said the railroad would not release the conductor's name until relatives are notified.

Worley said the train had apparently just left the downtown rail yard and was traveling north when the accident occurred.

"I don't know how fast it was going, but it was not too fast," he said.

After the conductor fell, Worley said, the engineer stopped the train and used bystander Scott Jackson's cellphone to summon help.

Worley said firefighters were dispatched at 2:48 p.m. to Northeast 23rd Street and Samuels Avenue, where they found the conductor lying against the far left side of two parallel tracks.

"He was within a foot or two of going off the trestle" and falling into the Trinity River, Worley said.

The Fire Department's water rescue team was dispatched but not needed, Worley said. He said the department's technical rescue team asked railroad employees to uncouple the train cars to enable the team to remove the conductor from the tracks.

He was still unconscious when he was taken to JPS about 3:45 p.m. with a severe injury to the left side of his head, Worley said.

Jackson said he saw the conductor fall. "He was unconscious and bleeding real bad. The guy who drove the train was crying when he asked me if I had a cellphone."

Copyright 2008 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service