Train Pulls Into Station With Body Pinned to It

French train officials say train hit cyclist at village crossing
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 17, 2014 4:39 PM CDT
Train Pulls Into Station With Body Pinned to It
A high-speed train speeds through the Jolny viaduct, near Thionville, eastern France, on its way to break the world speed record for a conventional train near Grigny, eastern France, April 3, 2007.   (AP Photo/Christian Lutz)

French train passengers were in shock today when a train rolled into a station with a bicyclist's dead body pinned to the driver's carriage, AFP reports. The high-speed train apparently hit the 48-year-old cyclist at a village crossing and carried it 25 miles to Mulhouse station. Police found the bicycle and examined the body, but couldn't say whether it was suicide or an accident, the Daily Mail reports. Meanwhile, train staff and passengers received counseling for emotional trauma.

"The body was found, stuck to the front right of the train, out of the driver's vision," said a national rail company spokesman, who described such incidents as "relatively rare." True, but a high-speed train (which can reach 200mph) did once strike a minivan without the driver noticing, Metro reports. "The kinetic energy of a train is so great that a shunt could go unnoticed," said the spokesman. "If there isn’t any debris left on the sides upon impact, you wouldn’t be aware of it." (Read about a mom who saw a train hit a car with her toddler inside.)

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