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Train track trespasser caught on camera pleads guilty

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) — One of two women caught on camera in a near fatal accident involving a train pleaded guilty.

Stacey Smith pleaded guilty to railroad trespassing. A video captured on July 10 on Indiana Rail Road’s viaduct spanning an inlet of Lake Lemon, which is 10 miles northeast of Bloomington. Showed two women trespassing on the middle of the bridge, known as Shuffle Creek Trestle.

Officials say the engineer on the 14,000-ton train first saw the pair sitting on the tracks. The engineer immediately applied the train’s emergency brakes and sounded the horn, but the women reportedly ran toward the opposite end of the viaduct.

Video shows one woman lay down in between the tracks as the train approached. The second woman nearly fell off the bridge as she laid down between the rails, with the train was just 30 feet away.

In August, prosecutors filed criminal charges against the two women. Misdemeanor railroad trespassing charges were filed in Indiana’s Monroe County Circuit Court against Smith, 37, of Bloomington and Wendy Gayle Timothy, 34, of Pensacola, Florida.

Timothy is still wanted. A warrant is out for her arrest. Smith was sentenced to pay court costs, a fine and complete over 30 hours of community service.

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