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Police: Diabetic Man Missing After Being Kicked Off Train

June 30th, 2007 . by TexasFred

PHOENIX — A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.

Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.

“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.

Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.

Amtrak personnel told police dispatchers that Sims was drunk and unruly.

The Sims family said Sims is diabetic and was going into shock.

Full Story Here:
Police: Diabetic Man Missing After Being Kicked Off Train

UPDATE:
Man Found 4 Days After Kicked Off Train - Forbes.com

Here’s a story that I didn’t see in the MSM, and I was seriously wondering, WHY? Why wasn’t FOX News all over this??

Would it have anything to do with the fact that Roosevelt Sims is a black man??

I didn’t know that from reading the story but then I clicked the video link and it just jumped out at me, and alarm bells started going off, I hope I’m wrong in my concern over this but you never know…

To me, the race of this man matters not, he was ill and the train crew was obviously a bunch of dumbasses, but I seriously wonder if that wasn’t a part of the deciding factor for the train crew, I may be wrong, but I DO wonder…

This just ticks me off beyond ALL belief, one reason is simply because it’s WRONG, perhaps the train crew didn’t know the difference, but that’s no excuse, diabetic shock can easily be confused with drunkenness, but even if the old boy WAS drunk, you don’t put a disoriented person off of a train in the middle of the Arizona wilderness, I know that area of Arizona and it’s damned rugged, even in the best of times, for healthy people, and what has been created here is a DEADLY situation…

The other reason it angers me so intensely is because I am an insulin dependent diabetic, I have been for several years now, and while I have yet to lapse into that condition where a casual observer would think I was drunk as opposed to in serious distress, I can’t help but think, how many other people has this happened to??

And what if it happened to me?? What would I do, wander around in a diabetic stupor and possibly, actually, quite likely die as a result??

I hope his family pursues serious legal action against Amtrak, and if he dies as a result OF this faux pas, I hope they sue the holy hell out of the ignorant bastards…

A Texas hat tip to Sunni at Rantings, Ramblings, and Other Miscellaneous Stuff where I found this story…

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20 Responses to “Police: Diabetic Man Missing After Being Kicked Off Train”

  1. comment number 1 by: Esther Thornton

    Hi lm from scotland and my husband is also diabetic and just over 1 month ago he went into town and forgot to take his meds it was a very warm day and he had nothing to eat before he left home [unknown to me ]so he had browse around the town felt fine went and had a few beers then headed home he took the train home and when he got off he didnt feel very good and collapsed a young girl called the police when they arrived he was still out cold so they brought him round and my hubby told them he was diabetic so they went and got him a can of cola drink from their car and told him to drink it which he did the young girl had a taxi booked and brought my hubby home he collapsed another 5 times and ended up in hospital overnight so here in scotland its not as bad l guess thanxs for you time

  2. comment number 2 by: Richard

    My Great-Aunt is diabetic as are a couple of my employees and I find the behavior of the Amtrak employees despicable. I used to take Amtrak to visit my parents when I was in my early twenties and while I enjoy riding the train, the employees always made me feel as if I was not welcome so I see that things have not changed very much.

    This is more than just lawsuit material, someone in Williams AZ needs to get a set of balls and charge them with attempted homicide, and considering it’s been two days now they may end up needing to get charged with murder.

  3. comment number 3 by: silent e

    Makes you wonder what kind of training they give their employees. Could you imagine being a diabetic or a drunk on a cruise ship in the middle of the Carribean and the crew has they same lame IQ as the AmTrak crew. It doesn’t sound realistic but neither does kicking the guy off the train…… Scary

  4. comment number 4 by: TexasFred

    Esther, I hope your husband is doing better, but please, don’t think that this a common occurrence here in the USA, it does happen on occasion, I have heard of people being arrested for drunk and disorderly before that were simply in diabetic distress, but I never heard of one being put off a train in the Arizona wilderness…

    And Esther, thank you for stopping in…

  5. comment number 5 by: GM Roper

    Good Lord, even if he was drunk and disorderly kicking a 65 year old man off the train so far from anything is a dispicable act. The employees should be fired and most likely should be arrested for manslaughter if the old fellow dies as is sadly likely.

  6. comment number 6 by: Carl

    GM, I think negligent homicide would be the appropriate charge if the poor man winds up deceased.

  7. comment number 7 by: Bloviating Zeppelin

    This is beyond heinous and indicative of what an Abortion On Toast that Amtrak has become — and this opinion from what might possibly be the Number One Railfan in the western US. C’mon, you simply do NOT do this to a fellow human being unless you’re right around the average IQ of a standard houseplant.

    I would recommend BOTH actions taken simultaneously: criminal proceedings AND civil suits.

    BZ

  8. comment number 8 by: Rico

    The guy was found safe and ok. So far only his family has said he might have been suffering from diabetic shock. No medical personnel have.

    Family members told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that Sims had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and may have been suffering the effects of diabetic shock. Sims’ wife, Ida, declined comment Friday when contacted by The Associated Press.

    http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/29/ap3873908.html

  9. comment number 9 by: Big White Hat

    This can’t possibly come out good.

  10. comment number 10 by: Brad Marston

    Fred,

    I couldn’t believe the story when I read it.
    1) Thank you for the update. I am relieved to know he was found.
    2) Unfortunately I have a suspiscion that race did play a role in the (hate to use the word “decision” since it applies thought) to kick this man off the train miles from a station or even water.
    3) I agree with the other commenters above, even if he was drunk, you just don’t do that. As someone said…what if he had been on a cruise ship? or a plane?
    4) Sadly if this had been a 20 year old blond attractive college coed Fox and every other cable channel would have gone with it 24/7 and we probably wouldn’t have even heard of the terrorism incidents in Great Britain.

    As Ronnie White says…”YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID!”

  11. comment number 11 by: Patrick Sperry

    Okay, this is beyond belief. Now, I realize that those folks are not Paramedics, but each train does have an EMT-B on it. Guess what? As a basic, hell, as a Paramedic, you are taught that Insulin Shock can, and will mimic ETOH intoxication. Where the hell was that EMT?

    This was not misfeasance, it was gross negligence. That my friends, is called a crime, in most states. If the guy dies, it could be a felony.

  12. comment number 12 by: Neil Stalkingbear

    There is NO excuse for this! The family should OWN that company. They had no actual way of even seeing if he was drunk in first place.

  13. comment number 13 by: Debbie

    This happens many times when diabetics are driving. It is assumed they have been drinking. Wearing a Medic Alert bracelet or some form of ID noting your diabetes is very important. Either way, no you don’t put a person off a train on their own .

  14. comment number 14 by: LittleOleLady

    Had a cousin (and best friend) that was a severe diabetic.. over the course of 10 years she lost a leg, half of the other foot and her eye sight to it, she was hospitalized with infections so severe that she had to have IV drugs as well as oral drugs for them.

    Last year she went to the ER ill THREE TIMES in two days and each time they sent her home, said she had diverticulitis, the fourth time she went to the ER they found she had a severe kidney infection and admitted her, she went into arrest and died that night, the infection hadn’t been caught soon enough and sepsis had set in, it went to her heart and brain. She was 37.

    My mom and father-in-law are both diabetic as well and I have seen some of the episodes diabetics can have.. I understand what it takes outta you when you have one and can only imagine what one as bad as his must have done to him..

  15. comment number 15 by: Basti

    Next they’ll be tossing diabetics and drunks off planes while they’re still at 30,000 feet. I worked with several diabetics and when they’re sugar went haywire they did appear to be drunk or on drugs. BTW, I don’t do trains I don’t like riding on anything that can’t get out of the way of something that gets in the way)

  16. comment number 16 by: Stanford Matthews

    Number one, find the man. Number two, fire those responsible. Number three, file what will be referred to as a frivolous law suit, and win. And finally, use some of the settlement proceeds to teach idiots who deal with the public not to be idiots or at least filter them out in the hiring process. Or is that a job an American won’t do.

  17. comment number 17 by: Rico

    This is just what I heard on the news and might only be CYA but the Amtrak employees said the man ran away from them into the woods. But nevertheless they still had removed him from the train to a station in the middle of nowhere which is more than just questionable.

    At my work we had a lady go into diabetic shock a few years back and it looked like she was drunk as a lord. Luckily she had a medical alert bracelet on and coworkers knew of her condition. We called paramedics and she was taken to a hospital, treated and was ok in a few hours.

  18. comment number 18 by: babbazee

    MFers.

    People today disgust me…

    I see it EVERYWHERE

    There is no sensitivty, no kindness, no effort made to see what anything is outside of the almighty I ME MINE

    and people look at me like I am nuts for not joining them in their self wallowing satanic bullshit

    COLD COLD COLD

    see SECOND TIMOTHY THIRD CHAPTER

  19. comment number 19 by: Lord Nazh©

    Sad story, people’s jobs should be lost and fortunes taken…

    Got a question for you guys though (some of you) and you Fred. After reading about it, why do you think race MAY have had something to do with the decision to dump the man from the train?

    I see that the race of the man matters not to you (good job) and yet you think it may have mattered to the people that did this? What leads you (and one commenter) to this ‘almost’ conclusion?

    Reading Amtrak’s non-response and their decision in the first place seems to point out they would do this to anyone, regardless of race.

  20. comment number 20 by: Carl

    Brad wrote: “As someone said…what if he had been on a cruise ship? or a plane?”

    Now THAT would have been a story! Imagine the headline:

    “Cruise Ship Intentionally Run Aground In National Forest To Expell Diabetic Passenger”

    LOL!