Police investigate train incident

JANESVILLE — Police are investigating what appears to be a suicide attempt Wednesday afternoon by a Janesville a man who lay down in front of a slow-moving train at the Five Points intersection.

Andrew L. Lubeck, Jr., 38, of 319 S. Main St., Janesville, was hit by the cowcatcher on the front of the engine and was pushed down the track. Police reported that Lubeck suffered “critical injuries” and was taken to Mercy Hospital, but hospital staff this morning declined to release his condition.

Witnesses told police they saw an apparently despondent man get out of an eastbound car stopped behind the flashing railroad crossing arms. The man walked onto the tracks and lay down in front of the train, which was moving about 5 mph.

“The conductor and engineer immediately braked the engine, but it took about 40 feet to stop,’’ a Janesville police press release reads.

“The patient was found lying facedown under the front of the train with his hips under the cowcatcher. He had pretty obvious and massive injuries to the head, left arm and right leg with a thin piece of metal in his upper left thigh that continued up toward his torso,’’ a Janesville Fire Department spokesman said.

At the paramedics’ request, the locomotive was backed off Lubeck.

“With something that heavy, you have no choice. It’s just one solid chunk of steel,’’ a fire department shift commander said.

Lubeck has been in the news before.

In November of 2004, Lubeck attacked his grandmother with a claw hammer after she refused to write him a $500 check. The attack resulted in skull fractures and a broken arm that put his grandmother into the hospital, according to Janesville Gazette archives.

Lubeck later was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and ordered by Judge James Daley committed to outpatient treatment with the Rock County Community Support Program for 25 years.

Lubeck was allowed to continue living at home with workers from the Community Support Program monitoring him and making sure he is taking his medications. At the time, Lubeck was diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s disorder, which is considered to be a form of autism. Some psychiatrists also had diagnosed Lubeck as suffering from bipolar disorder, his attorney said in 2005.