Man sitting on tracks survives being hit by train

Andrew B. Davoli is lucky to be alive.

According to police, the 25-year-old Washington Township resident was sitting on train tracks in West Deptford early Tuesday when he was hit by a freight train.

He was saved, police said, because he fell between the rails and the train rolled over him.

After the train came to a halt, conductor Chris Herff walked back, fearing he would find a body, but was relieved to see Davoli crawling out from under a car, police said.

West Deptford Police Chief Samuel DiSimone said Davoli was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries that included a laceration to the right side of the head, and leg and back pains.

Davoli told police he did not know he had ended up on the tracks, but acknowledged he had been drinking, DiSimone said.

The police chief gave this account:

At 4:30 a.m., Officer David Jiles responded to a call for a person hit by a train on the tracks 250 feet south of the Jobstown Road crossing in the Crown Point section.

Herff told police he saw what appeared to be an animal on the tracks in the predawn darkness and blew the horn in an effort to scare off the creature.

But as the train drew near, Herff saw it was a person with his head down, sitting on the track, and applied the brakes.

The train, however, could not stop in time.

"He was knocked between the tracks and the train rolled over him," DiSimone said. "I guess this was not his time. He got extremely, extremely lucky."