GERLACH - A 26-year-old man was struck and killed by a westbound Union Pacific locomotive 15 miles northeast of Gerlach early Monday morning, according to Pershing County Undersheriff Thomas Bjerke.
The victim, identified as Derek Charles Sorensen, was a resident of Nevada County, Calif. Officials said he was camping with about 30 people at Trego Hot Springs near the Trego railroad crossing on the edge of the Black Rock Playa.
The incident was reported to law enforcement officials by a witness at 12:32 a.m., Bjerke said. A Washoe County Sheriff's deputy and an ambulance team responded from Gerlach, followed by Pershing County Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Mike Stephens from Lovelock.
The train stopped and witnesses tried to revive the victim but Sorensen was pronounced dead due to massive blunt force trauma at 1:47 a.m., Bjerke said.
A Union Pacific investigator and Washoe County's Major Accident Response Team also responded to the accident scene, Bjerke said.
Following the coroner's investigation on scene by Sgt. Stephens, the victim's body was transported to the medical examiner's office in Reno for further investigation and toxicology samples. Information on the incident and the investigation was relayed to the Pershing County Sheriff's office by Washoe County dispatch, Bjerke said.
"It's hard for us to talk to our deputies out there," he said. "It's easy for Washoe County deputies to talk to their dispatch because they're only 15 miles away (from Gerlach) and we're an hour and a half away. They assist us a lot out there and we want to give them every bit of credit for that."
Sorensen was known to attend the Burning Man festival and had participated in rocket launching events on the Black Rock Playa, Bjerke said.
Informal gatherings are now common in the Black Rock Desert as a result of the annual Burning Man festival. The festival is expected to attract around 60,000 "burners" at the end of August but others organize other special events.
During the "Fourth of Juplaya," thousands of people will camp in small groups around the playa, making it a challenge for sheriff's deputies and BLM officers to locate and respond to emergencies, Bjerke said.
"You get all kinds of events out there," Bjerke said. "There are these random pre-Burning Man events that occur out there. Burning Man has kind of opened up the Black Rock Desert - a lot of people come out to see the event and think it's a nice place to vacation. They get together in little groups and vacation out there."[[In-content Ad]]
