Victim with life-threatening injuries hangs on in surgical intensive care unit

A woman who suffered life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a train at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday was still hanging on late Monday in the surgical intensive care unit at Maricopa Medical Center.

Warren Whitney, a hospital spokesman, said while Justin’s condition is critical, “she is hanging on.”

“It would be miraculous if she makes it through, but she is hanging in there,” he said.

Whitney noted that while surviving after being hit by a train is rare, people sometimes do pull through. His neice in Seattle, for example, was hit by a train in September.

“It is a tricky situation, but she made it,” he said of his niece. “It doesn’t happen all that often.”

Officer Stephen Judd of the Maricopa Police Department said it was unclear whether Clorinda Gwen Justin had tripped and fallen on the railroad tracks about 600 feet west of the railroad crossing on North John Wayne Parkway or whether she was hit by the train as it passed.

Justin, who was air lifted to Maricopa County Regional Hospital with compound fractures and head injuries, was “highly intoxicated at the time of the accident,” Judd said a preliminary investigation revealed.

“She was in a place that would be considered trespassing,” Judd continued. “She wasn’t crossing at a designated cross.

She was at a place where nobody was supposed to be on foot, and where no vehicle was supposed to be.”

Judd said the incident was isolated.

“This is very rare,” he said. “Most of the time people stay clear of the tracks or if they are crossing they cross successfully. It is uncommon for us.”

Photo by Howard Waggner