EAST STROUDBURG - The sound of the Delaware Lackawanna Railroad Company's train whistle echoed through East Stroudsburg around noon Wednesday, as the engineer tried to avoid hitting two men on the tracks.

A homeless man who used train tracks as a pillow may have thought the sound of a train barreling toward him was a bad dream, but the nightmare was real. Rafael Jiminez was hit by a freight train Wednesday.

Stroud Area Regional Police Chief David Ace said, "He is alive. They've flown him...possible head injury. There was nothing visible. Nothing showing."

Investigators believe the men spent their morning drinking at a makeshift camp then walked just a few feet away up here to the tracks where they took a nap with their heads right up against the rails.

The conductor spotted the men laying along the tracks about 300 yards away. He blew the horn and slammed on the brakes. Bruce Strunk woke up and jumped but Jiminez slept until the train clipped the top of his head.

Jimenez will likely go straight from the hospital to prison. Authorities say it's illegal to block train tracks. Stroud Area Regional Police will look into exactly what charges they can file.

Ace said, "If it's not something that we can do, possibly we can refer charges to the federal government."

This isn't the first time police have had problems with the homeless along the tracks in East Stroudsburg. Jimenez and Strunk have both been arrested several times on nuisance and charges like public drunkenness.

Ace said, "We come, we move them along, we uproot them and they just pop up somewhere else - so it's a continuous problem. We try and it's just very difficult to eradicate."

Police said the train company is not at fault in the accident but the Engineer and Conductor told WBRE News they'll still likely have bad dreams about their daytime nightmare.

Strunk is now behind bars in Monroe County. During the accident investigation, police learned there were several warrants for his arrest - all in relation to minor crimes.