Girl loses leg after getting dragged under train in S.W. Philly
Police said she was walking along the tracks.
An 11-year-old girl lost one leg and had the other partially severed after she got caught beneath a moving freight train Wednesday afternoon while playing with friends on tracks in Southwest Philadelphia, according to police.
Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said the girl, whom he did not identify, was hanging out after an early school dismissal with three friends on tracks near 56th Street and Grays Avenue about 2 p.m. They saw a slow-moving CSX freight train passing, Walker said, and began tossing rocks at it and trying to touch it.
The girl lost her footing and tried to grab onto a pole on the train, Walker said. But her legs got tangled beneath it as it continued westbound, and she was dragged for about 500 feet, to the 2200 block of 58th Street.
Walker said the girl's right leg was severed and her left leg was partially severed.
"Horrifying for her and for the three friends who watched it," Walker said.
The girl was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was reported in critical condition, police said.
