For Exhausted Travelers, a Rest on the Rails Can Be Fatal

BY SONIA NAZARIO, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Immigrants who walk along Mexican railroad tracks, waiting for a freight train to board, often stretch out across the rails, using one as a footrest and the other as a pillow. They believe it is the only way to catch sleep and not miss the next train--they trust that the vibrations from the locomotive will wake them. Some also believe, mistakenly, that snakes cannot slither over the rails, so they sleep there for protection. Exhausted, many do not hear the trains bearing down on them: the ear-splitting horns, the screaming brakes. They lose limbs and are sometimes decapitated.