A man who allegedly dozed off on the railroad tracks on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul early Sunday, Nov. 25, was lucky that a train engineer wasn’t asleep at the switch.

The engineer saw the man, later identified as John Steven Sommers, 50, of St. Paul, lying on the tracks shortly before 4 a.m. He had to stop the train to avoid hitting Sommers, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court charging him with trespassing.

He asked Sommers to get off the tracks; Sommers refused, the complaint said.

Police responded and arrested Sommers. He told them “he had been drinking and was just taking a shortcut home,” the complaint said.

The incident took place at 508 N. Cleveland Ave., near University Avenue in St. Paul. Sommers’ address corresponds to a residence about a mile away for homeless men.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.