Updated to include comment from Kansas City Southern
The U.S. Border Patrol says it has apprehended an individual whose foot was partially severed while the person attempted to board a moving train between Freer and San Diego, Texas.
Agents couldn’t reach the individual until the train stopped in San Diego. Once there, agents rendered aid to the person, whom the Border Patrol described only as a Mexican citizen in the U.S. illegally, according to a Thursday release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agents took the person to Emergency Medical Services personnel, who then took the individual to the nearest hospital for treatment.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), which operates trains in the area, confirmed that the individual was a trespasser who was trying to board a Kansas City Southern train. The company is investigating the incident.
The incident occurred in what Border Patrol agents described as the Laredo sector, an area between Laredo and the southwest border of Texas. The sector consists of 171 miles along the Rio Grande River between Mexico and the U.S., and it stretches from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to the Oklahoma and Arkansas state lines. There are six permanent Border Patrol checkpoints in the Laredo sector.
CBP describes the sector as one that sees a lot of commercial activity, with freight train checks occurring often for potential smuggling.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Joanna Marsh.
Related articles:
CBP finds 48 alleged stowaways in BNSF, UP trains at border
Borderlands: CBP beefs up border security; Kenworth restarts truck factory in Mexico