by Alan McArthur
Landmark reporter

A 56-year-old man was struck and injured by a train just north of Weston.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train was headed north along the tracks when it struck a BNSF employee near the Iatan Power Plant.

Sheriff's deputies and West Platte Fire District personnel responded to the scene and loaded the victim into a helicopter to be transported to a hospital.

However, Frank Hunter, Platte County public information officer, said the matter was an industrial accident since the man was an employee and the sheriff’s department did not have an incident report.

According to Steve Forsberg, general director public affairs for BNSF, the employee was struck by a handrail along the steps on the train because he was standing too close to the tracks. Forsberg said the employee is a signal maintainer, but did not release the employee’s name because of his family.

Forsberg said the employee had been with the company since 1970 and had attempted to get out of the way of the train. Forsberg said that at the time of the accident there was poor visibility because of the snow storm, but the train blew its horn when the engineers saw the man. The train stopped through emergency braking proceedures.

Forsberg said he was not sure which hospital the employee was taken to or what his condition was as of Tuesday.

The train had four locomotives on the front and one at the rear, and the train was pulling coal cars that were empty. The area where the employee was struck is known by BNSF as East Sadler.