Lie down: Expert reluctantly offers safety tip

You're not supposed to walk on railroad tracks, but if you’re on a high bridge and you're about to get hit by a train, safety expert Danny Gilbert advises lying very low between the rails.

"It's not a sure-fire way to avoid getting killed," cautions Gilbert, the Roanoke-based safety expert for Norfolk Southern, "but we have had individuals who laid flat and survived."

That's what he'd do if he was caught high on a trestle facing a looming train. "But I could be killed if something drags and catches me," he says. Air hoses, for instance. They connect all the cars and routinely hang mere inches above the rails. A thin person, Gilbert says, stands a better chance of avoiding death or injury from an air hose.

One gets the sense that this isn't Gilbert's favorite topic. After all, anyone without specific permission to be on his company's property is trespassing.

"A railroad is not a good place to be," stresses Gilbert. "It's dangerous even for our own employees– and they're experienced."