Local man critically injured in Utah train accident

A 19-year-old Richmond, Ind., man is in critical condition at a Utah hospital on Friday night after he was crushed by falling steel on a rail car in South Salt Lake City and had to undergo a partial amputation of his leg.

David Frame was taken to University of Utah Hospital by medical helicopter after a surgeon from the hospital amputated his foot at the scene of the train yard accident, University of Utah Health Care spokesman Christopher Nelson said.

CBS affiliate KUTV reported that firefighters worked for more than three hours to free Frame, who was crushed from the waist down by a load of steel plates at the Roper train yard in South Salt Lake. He was trapped for a total of eight hours.

Frame’s family told News Center 7 that he is homeless and was jumping trains in an attempt to get to California. His mother said doctors are giving them updates by phone and the family will travel to Utah on Saturday to be with him.

Salt Lake officials told KUTV that a homeless man had hitched a ride on a train from Denver and was lying on the flat bed of a rail car loaded with steel when the plates shifted and fell on him.

A dog that was with Frame was crushed as well, and did not survive, according to KUTV.