Deputies Find Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train

Passenger Barefoot, Dehydrated, Disoriented, Deputies Say

WILLIAMS, Ariz. -- A 65-year-old St. Louis man who Amtrak personnel kicked off a train in the middle of a national forest in Williams has been found dehydrated and disoriented two miles from where he was dropped off.Amtrak officials said train workers followed policy when they put off the train a man they thought was drunk, but the man's family says he was in diabetic shock at the time.Police said Roosevelt Sims, a factory worker who had just retired last week, was discovered Thursday night walking along the railroad tracks barefoot by Coconino County sheriff's deputies.


Deputies said he was dehydrated and disoriented.He was rushed to a Flagstaff hospital for emergency treatment, deputies said.Sims headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.

• VIDEO: View Original CBS 5 News Report - 6/28/07
• Amtrak personnel told police dispatchers that Sims was drunk and unruly.The Sims family said Sims is diabetic and was going into shock."He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees," Lt. Mike Graham said.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.Amtrak, in a statement released late Thursday, said it followed company policy. “The conductor and the passenger waited on the platform with the passenger's luggage,” the statement said. “Upon arrival of authorities, the passenger fled into nearby woods.”
• SURVEY: Is The Company's Response Acceptable?
• When officers arrived at the crossing, police said, they found Sims had left his luggage and medication behind.Sims' brother, Brian Mason, said his family tried to call Sims on his cell phone that night, but Sims was incoherent.Cell phone records show that Sims' phone was last used in Litchfield Park, Ariz., 180 miles from Williams.Williams police told CBS 5 that Amtrak has used the abandoned crossing as a drop-off site in the past. Graham said that whether drunk or not, no one should be dropped off there."You don't put anyone off in an area like that," Graham said.

article is here