A 54 year old Taylorsville man was struck and killed while walking on the railroad tracks near East 2nd Avenue in Rome early Wednesday morning.
According to Floyd County Deputy Coroner Gene Proctor, Rickey Barnett was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:15am.
It remains unclear why Barnett failed to move before being struck by the Norfolk Southern Train – the engineer said he was blowing the whistle but Barnett failed to respond.
Proctor said a friend of the victim was asleep under a nearby bridge – however that person stated that they heard nothing and didn’t know why Barnett remained on the tracks in the path of the oncoming train.
(WRGA/www.wrgarome.com)