Man killed by train in Athens

By Joe Johnson

A man was struck and killed by a train in Athens this week,

According to Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wison, 37-year-old Charles Nicholas Lawrence was walking along the CSX railroad tracks between Jefferson and Tallassee roads Tuesday afternoon “and failed to clear the tracks before being struck.”

Lawrence, who was homeless, was walking with his back to the oncoming train.

“The engineer was blowing the horn for a good distance” prior to hitting the man, Wilson said.

The coroner said Larwence’s death appeared to be accidental, and there will not be an autopsy.

Lawrence was the second person in four months to be killed by a train in Athens-Clarke County.

On July 19, a CSX employee was inspecting the tracks about a mile and a half east of the Fowler Mill Road train crossing when he found the body of 28-year-old Christopher Lee Sokes of Bogart.

Authorities determined that Stokes had been struck by a train at least a couple of days earlier, and that his death was accidental.