{"id":778778,"date":"2026-05-07T04:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778778\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:03:21","slug":"woman-loses-both-legs-after-being-struck-by-train-in-west-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778778\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman loses both legs after being struck by train in west Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 A woman is in the hospital fighting to survive after she was hit by a train in west Phoenix<\/a> two weeks ago. Doctors amputated both of her legs.<\/p>\n

Sonja Celius was in town from Nevada for what she thought would be a quick stop in Arizona when she was struck by a train on April 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, probably one of the most traumatizing pieces of news to receive in my life,\u201d her daughter Kayla said.<\/p>\n

Police shut down the area near 27th Avenue and Thomas Road<\/a> for hours, taping off the scene as investigators worked to figure out exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

Celius was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Her family said the days since have been a blur of fear and waiting.<\/p>\n

Mother of three faces long recovery<\/p>\n

The accident happened in broad daylight. No one knows why or how she got onto the train tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to say or think. All of us cried for multiple days. I was just devastated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Celius is a mother of three. Her youngest child is 16. While Kayla said her mom is expected to survive, she is now facing a long, painful road ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a walking miracle, but it is so devastating to know that my mother will never walk again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Crossing flagged as high-risk<\/p>\n

The rail crossing where Celius was hit is no stranger to serious incidents and is listed by the city of Phoenix for safety improvements.<\/p>\n

Federal Railroad Administration crossing data and state rail-safety studies have flagged the corridor as high-risk and outlined engineering and signal changes that officials say could reduce future crashes.<\/p>\n

Phoenix police said what led up to the collision is part of their ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

The family started a GoFundMe to help her kids during this time. For more information, click\/tap here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 A woman is in the hospital fighting to survive after she was hit by a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":778779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,7182,318930,318931,1589,7183,318929,318932,281738,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-778778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-azfamily","12":"tag-hit-by-train-west-phoenix","13":"tag-mother-hit-by-train","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-phoenix-news","16":"tag-sonja-celius","17":"tag-train-accident-phoenix","18":"tag-train-collision","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116531311851797270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}