A pedestrian suffered serious injuries Friday evening after being struck by a train near the intersection of Gibbon Road and West Sugar Creek Road in northeast Charlotte. The person was rushed to a hospital, and as of Friday night, their identity had not been released.
According to WBTV, the Mecklenburg EMS Agency, known as Medic, confirmed the pedestrian was hit by a train near that intersection and transported them to a hospital with serious injuries. It was not immediately clear what led up to the collision, and no further details about the pedestrian's condition or identity had surfaced at the time of publication.
A Pattern of Incidents in the Area
Friday's crash is not the first time a train has struck a pedestrian in northeast Charlotte in recent months. On September 4, one person suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by a train near University City Boulevard and Back Creek Church Road, according to QC News. Medic took that victim to Atrium Carolinas Medical Center, the outlet reported.
An even more tragic case unfolded on April 18, when a man was struck and killed by a CATS light-rail train while crossing North Tryon Street and Orr Road around 5:47 p.m. QC News reported that officers later identified the victim as 32-year-old Carlos Jamel Michilena, and a preliminary investigation found that he had walked in front of the train as it entered the intersection.
Separate Westover Fatality Under Investigation
Northeast Charlotte is not the only part of the city where pedestrians have been killed by trains. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Major Crash Investigation Unit said it was investigating a separate, fatal collision involving a train and a pedestrian in the city's Westover Division, according to a release from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Pedestrian Deaths Climbing Across the Region
The incidents arrive as the Charlotte region grapples with a troubling climb in pedestrian deaths overall. Between 2020 and 2024, 287 people were killed while walking in the Charlotte region, up from 241 between 2015 and 2019, per the Charlotte Observer. The region's average annual pedestrian fatality rate has risen to 2.07 deaths per 100,000 residents, and the Charlotte-Concord-Gaston metro area now ranks 50th among the nation's 101 largest metro areas for pedestrian fatality rate.
The trend mirrors what's happening nationally. Pedestrian fatalities have increased 72% across the country since 2009, and more than 7,000 people died while walking in the United States in 2024 alone, the Observer's report found. Federal regulators also track highway-rail grade-crossing incidents nationwide through a dashboard maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which breaks down fatalities and injuries by location, railroad and the presence of warning devices such as gates and crossbucks.
Separately, a North Carolina transportation research report found that 97 pedestrians were killed while trespassing along railroad rights-of-way statewide between January 2011 and December 2016, according to a study housed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. No cause has been determined for Friday's crash near Gibbon and West Sugar Creek roads, and it remains unclear whether the pedestrian was at a marked crossing when the train struck them.
