Man rescued after falling onto train car

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A man was flown to a Cape Girardeau hospital after he jumped or fell from the Highway 53 overpass Saturday afternoon, landing atop a stationary Union Pacific train car.

About 12:55 p.m., the Poplar Bluff Police Department was contacted by a passing motorist who reported having found the injured man, later identified as Elbert J. Cook, 27, of the 700 block of Dewey in Poplar Bluff.

"The witness said (Cook) was sitting on the ledge, on the north side of the bridge, with his feet hanging off," said patrolman Kenny Carpenter.

After having passed Cook, Carpenter said, the motorist looked back in his mirror and saw Cook hanging onto the ledge by one arm.

"Then, he seen his arm slip and him go off (the ledge)," police Lt. Bob Moore said. "He parked and run back up to the (overpass) and seen him lying on top of the train."

After the motorist called 911, Moore said, patrolman Jamie Sample was the first officer to arrive.

Sample, he said, found Cook lying on top of the rail car, "bleeding from the face and with a obvious broken left wrist."

Sample said Cook "landed on his face" after falling about 25 to 30 feet from the overpass ledge.

"When he landed, he hit the hasp" on one of the grain car's lids, said Sample, who indicated he smelled alcohol on Cook.

Also responding to the scene were additional police officers, members of the Poplar Bluff Fire Department and emergency medical personnel.

Sample said the fire department's ladder truck was placed next to the tracks.

Firefighters, he said, then "swung the ladder over the car," he said.

EMS, fire and police personnel placed Cook in a basket stretcher, which was "secured to the ladder and then lowered to the ground and put in an ambulance," Sample said.

EMS personnel took Cook to a location on Cheshire Boulevard, where he was placed in a medical helicopter and flown to Saint Francis Medical Center for treatment, Sample said.

The investigation into the man's fall is continuing.

"We don't know if he intentionally jumped," Carpenter said. "That is yet to be determined."