CASTLE ROCK, Wash. — A Western Washington woman who was hit by an Amtrak train while trying to pull her boyfriend out of its path says she feels lucky to be alive after suffering serious injuries.
June Nielsen returned to the railroad tracks near Westside Highway in Castle Rock, where she said the incident happened on Oct. 11.
“Well, to tell you the truth, my heart is racing pretty good,” Nielsen said. “And I am thanking God I can still walk.”
Nielsen said she and her boyfriend had finished fishing along the Cowlitz River and were crossing the tracks to return to their car when they heard the horn of a southbound Amtrak train.
“That’s where I heard the honk, and I was already off the track,” Nielsen said. “My boyfriend was right in the middle.”
Nielsen said she instinctively reached for him.
“So I reached out for his hand and I pulled him and then I pushed him,” she said. “So, I thought I was off the track when that happened and I got clipped.”
The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office said the train was traveling at least 70 mph.
Nielsen said that after she was struck, she called her children because she did not know whether she would survive.
“The first thing I did was call my daughter and my kids to say that I love you because I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it,” Nielsen said.
Her daughter, Eva Nielsen, said she immediately began crying when she received the call.
The impact collapsed one of Nielsen’s lungs, broke six ribs and caused multiple fractures in her back and shoulder. She spent about a week and a half in a Vancouver hospital.
Asked whether she feels lucky to be alive, Nielsen responded, “Oh my God, yes.”
Eva Nielsen believes a backpack her mother was wearing may have helped protect her from even more serious injuries.
“This backpack probably saved her from being paralyzed,” she said. “And so when I saw that, that really set in.”
KIRO 7 reached out to Amtrak for comment about the collision but had not received a response by the time the broadcast story aired.
Eva Nielsen said she does not blame Amtrak for what happened, but she wants to see more warning signs along the tracks alerting people to train traffic.
“She’s not the first. She’s not going to be the last and hopefully more people don’t have to die for something to make a difference,” she said.
For Nielsen and her family, her survival remains difficult to comprehend.
“Just be grateful that she’s still alive,” Eva Nielsen said.
“For getting hit by a train,” Nielsen said, “it’s a miracle.”