Operation: LIFESAVER
Warning!
Some of the following descriptions might be disturbing to some. Reader discretion advised.
A word about Operation: Lifesaver...
Over the years, I've had to see some things that I would have been perfectly happy never seeing; when you tangle with a train, injuries are usually major or fatal. Some of these things will stay with me for the rest of my life. There are two factors all of these incidents have in common: A) They involved people coming into conflict with trains, and B) they ALL could have been avoided SO EASILY. These people died because they were stupid. I hate the way that sounds, but the truth can be brutal sometimes. What I mean by stupid is careless, unthinking. They threw their lives away for nothing. Absolutely NOTHING.
Take, for instance, an incident which occurred in November of 1997 in a small town near Bakersfield. An Hispanic male adult was walking home after a night of drinking and he wandered onto the main railroad line passing through the town. He was struck by an eastbound freight train travelling at 68 mph. The majority of his body became caught under the pilot (cow-catcher) and was dragged through the ballast (the gravel used as a foundation for the tracks) for about 75 feet. I will never forget arriving on scene. Everywhere I shone my spotlight, the ballast was glistening with blood. What made matters worse was the fact that the family of the man who lived nearby had found out that this had occurred and had arrived at the scene. They were being contained by some sheriff's deputies away from the scene but they could still see us. I often wonder what they must have thought as they watched us walking back and forth along the trackline, our flashlights scanning the ground, the coroner's officers occasionally bending over to retrieve something which they examined and then quickly scooped into their bio-hazard bags. It took me five and a half hours of tossing and turning to get to sleep that day.
Or, take an incident which occurred in the early-morning hours of a rainy Monday on the outskirts of Bakersfield. A man was on his way to work in his mid-size pickup when he stopped at a railroad crossing. The crossing arms were down, the lights were flashing, and the bells were ringing. The train crew later stated to me that they watched as the man looked right at them before driving around the crossing arms. The train broadsided the truck at 51 mph. The truck was carried by the train approximately 700 feet down the trackline before finally tumbling free and rolling to a stop. The man was ejected after the truck came free. Imagine what the last few seconds of this man's life were like. Imagine the animal terror he felt as he realized that the train was going to hit him. I'll never forget his broken body lying twisted in the mud, his open eyes staring up into the darkness as the rain washed the blood off his face.
A Union Pacific employee told me about this incident. It seems that a young couple had decided to take a shortcut home by walking through the UP switching yard in Bakersfield. It was at night, and visibility in the yard is poor. To get to the far side of the yard and the neighboring street, the couple had to cross over several trains and cuts of railroad cars. What they didn't know was that one of the trains was preparing to pull. The young man made it across and turned to help his girlfriend down off the knuckle joining two railcars when the train began to move with a violent jerk. The young lady's left foot was caught and ripped off. Thanks to the quick actions of this UP employee, the lady survived her injuries, but he tells me that her screams of agony and horror will haunt his nightmares forever.
Believe me, I could go on! But if I haven't made my point by now then you're never going to get it. I've been graphic here for a reason. I want you to think very carefully about what I've written here. I especially want you to think about it the next time you're sitting in your car at a railroad crossing and you see an oncoming train and you think, "I can make it! I don't want to sit here and wait; I've got things to do," and you look around to see if there's a cop nearby. I want you to think about it the next time you wonder whether or not you can get home more quickly by walking along the railroad tracks or crossing over a stopped train. Please, please, PLEASE don't take that gamble. Is your life really worth so little to you and your family that you would put it on the line to gain five extra minutes? Because, if you lose, as these other people have lost, as people lose every day, then that is ALL that you will have died for!
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