Amtrak sends Diabetic man on wilderness journey

Is this murder if he is not found alive?



Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train, Now Missing

http://www.10news.com/news/13588607/detail.html

 

Charges of murder...NO

 

This is odd. It sounds like they dropped him off at the Williams Junction Amtrak "slab", which is a concrete slab next to the tracks that is used as the "depot". I was under the impression it was still in use.
I railfan there more than anywhere else. There are houses around, and a fair amount of car traffic in the area, unless he purposely ran into the deeper woods. I'm not sure what they mean by "abandoned" crossing, this is the transcon with crossing gates all through there. The sad thing is they had just passed the downtown Flagstaff station maybe 15 minutes earlier. Or they could have dropped him off in Williams for that matter.

 

Quote: Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. Unquote

This does not sound like the place you describe. Frank

 

WOW, sounds like someone may loose a job (at the very least) over this! I understand that Amtrak can disembark a passenger at their will BUT it sure seems like they could have waited until they were in a town/city. What a mess. I sure hope the guy is ok.
John

 

Yeah, the cops who could not run down a 65 year old guy. "When officers arrived at the crossing, police said, Sims ran into the woods, leaving his luggage and medication behind."

There's a lot to this story we don't know, and the author of that story I think is telling every other fact in the story. How long was the train parked during this interruption? Amtrak did call police as noted here: "When officers arrived at the crossing, police said, Sims ran into the woods, leaving his luggage and medication behind." The act of running into the woods when police show up sounds like the act of an unruly person to me. Is it Amtrak's fault local police could not run down a 65 year old guy!? Was the train still there, or had it left like the reporter implies? Until we know more facts I'm not rushing to judge and giving Amtrak the benefit of the doubt on this one.

All of these items could be true, we just don't know:
He was an immediate threat to himself and other passengers.
Because of this Amtrak found a need to stop the train immediately and call police.
For his and other passengers protection, Amtrak personnel and the gentlemen were standing outside stopped train.
Police show up, man runs into woods (this we know is a fact).

I could be wrong but this stinks of selective reporting by the media. I want more facts.

 

according to Az. republic website, man has been found

A Coconino County Sheriff’s deputy has located Roosevelt Sims, the 65-year-old man aboard an Amtrak train who was ejected for appearing drunk and out of control about 5 miles outside of the city of Williams in Northern Arizona.

Sims was diagnosed with diabetes just last week. His family says that explains his strange behavior on an Amtrak train, not intoxication. Sims was transported to Flagstaff Medical Center for observation and will be interviewed by police when cleared by medical staff.

Other Amtrak passengers say Sims was left in a desolate area late Sunday night. Earlier, police spotted Sims shortly after he was asked to leave the train, but he ran away into the forest.

 

What were they thinking!

mg: mg: mg: mg:
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As highlighted by Hooch Runners the story may very well be taken out of context of what was really happening at the time of the incident. In my 23yr experience in living as an insulin dependent diabetic calls me to raise questions. When I've come dangerously close to passing out from insulin shock I still had the sense to ask for help. 1- Why couldn't the passenger do the same? 2- I googled for more info and found that he may very well have been intoxicated. Diabetes/alcohol combination? Very bad as you can be intoxicated AND be experiencing hypoglycemia/insulin shock at the same time! Case in point. While enjoying a wonderful vacation with a very good friend of mine in San Diego I had just a little bit too much of a good time. I shared good conversation and a pitcher of beer under the huge ficus trees next to the beautiful bay. On the way home I got into a verbal tiff with someone who was trying to give me a hard time. It was the conductor on a northbound AMTRAK train! I realised my demeanor and promptly relaxed as it was never my will to cause ANY kind of problem in the first place. As you see, I LIKE trains. But it also goes to show things can happen. The situation with the St. Louis passenger may be more complicated than stated. With true insulin shock you can very quickly go completely unconscious. This wasn't the case here. The world often presents complex situations can only be handled within the limits of our knowledge and capability. Cheers :teeth:

 

I suppose Coconino county doesn't have too much action in the way of news, so this kind of reporting is inevitable. Selective reporting? possibly... inadequate investigating, more than likely. And of course there is the sensationalized headline to sell the article. Yep, a lot of the why, what , where, when, how, etc. not answered.

I'm glad they found the guy and he was ...OK?

Steve F

 

You said it!

My friend, you have just scratched the surface. Add to that that this took place in a remote location so I doubt a reporter was actually on scene and any information gathered was through phone calls with upset family members.
Flagstaff is just about 7000 foot. The summit of the Arizona divide isn't much higher, 7335 (not really that close to 8000). So there alone we can see the accuracy of the reporting.

 

Saturday's Arizona Republic confirmed the man as doing well in a Flagstaff hospital. They indeed took him off the train at the Amtrak stop, which is a simple slab of concrete next to the tracks, according to the article, and a conductor reportedly waited with him until the police showed up, at which point he ran away. This was and is a regularly scheduled Amtrak stop. They run vans back and forth from the slab into town. The video coverage in Tony's Fox link indeed showed Williams Junction, several miles east of Williams. Balou is correct in the inadequate "reporting" that goes on in this state, the elevation at Williams is around 6800' or so. How a "drunk" man escaped from anyone at this location is beyond me, the area is open and flat. I think the "abandoned crossing" they refer to is a private MOW crossing at that location.
Thankfully he is OK and will get the medical attention he apparantly needs.