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Teen Who Lost Legs Jumping Train Talks For The First Time

LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) - A teen who lost her legs and nearly died after trying to hop a train in Longmont told her story for the first time.

Anna Beninati, 18, says she and some friends were just out having fun. More than 4 1/2 months later, she's recovering.

Beninati spoke with the Longmont Times-Call over the weekend.

"It was such a romantic kind of notion -- these four kids getting ready to hop the rails, drinking our glass-bottle Cokes. It was a great little moment right there in the early afternoon," Beninati told the Longmont Times-Call.

"I had this gut feeling but I went for it anyway," she said.

She and her friends decided to go train jumping on the tracks at 3rd Avenue and Atwood Street. She wasn't successful.

"Oh my God, I'm at 3rd Avenue at the railroad tracks. Somebody just tried to jump on the train and severed her legs," a woman told a 911 dispatcher.

LINK: The entire story from the Longmont Times-Call, including the YouTube video

The 911 calls started pouring in. Beninati remembers the incident like it was yesterday.

"I got my right leg up on the train and then my left leg was dragging on the ground. It ended up bouncing on the rocks underneath the train and I got sucked in, and the next thing I knew I was watching my legs get crushed by coal cars," she told the Longmont Times-Call.

Witnesses rushed to help but it was too late. The train was traveling at 18 miles per hour. Her legs were severed at the knees.

Thankfully, the Colorado State University student survived to tell her story and gets around now in a wheel chair. Though she knew her accident was serious, when help arrived she knew she'd be alright.

"When I saw the ambulance pull up, it was like it hit me, 'Oh, I'm going to be okay now.' "

Beninati was in Longmont at a firefighter awards ceremony over the weekend. She handed out awards to the responders who helped her that day.

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