Investigation underway into 7-year-old's railroad injury

An investigation should be finished soon into why a 7-year-old girl was under an Union Pacific train when it started moving Sunday afternoon, Scott City police chief Don Cobb said.

The girl suffered a severed arm in the accident. She was taken to St. Louis for treatment, and opened her eyes Monday, Cobb said.

A report that the girl was playing with friends near the train is wrong, Cobb said.

"I expect to wrap it up win the next couple of days," he said.

Preliminary reports to Union Pacific officials show the girl was seeking a shortcut across the tracks with two adults and two other juveniles, railroad spokesman Mark Davis said.

The accident occurred about 4 p.m. A southbound train was waiting for a northbound train to pass before proceeding, Davis said. "The others were able to get out of the way but the 7-year-old girl was struck," he said.

The identity of the people involved was being withheld until the investigation is complete.

Cobb wouldn't talk about details of the investigation. "It is really premature," he said.

Trains regularly block passage through Scott City. There is one overpass, at Second Street, designed for pedestrian and automobile traffic when trains are stopped. The group was about 180 yards from the overpass when it attempted to cross the tracks, Cobb said.

Union Pacific is working with local investigators, said Joe Arbona, spokesman for the railroad.

"It is so dangerous for anybody to try to get across a train, through the cars, over the couplings or underneath," Arbona said. "A stopped train can start at any moment."