Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy

In Little Rock(About 60 mi. from my house) the Texas Eagle left Little Rock Union Station at about 7:59a.m. and as it was passing through Mabelvale (a suburb of LR) a woman on her cell phone doesn't even notice the gates come down and the Eagle t-bones her at the crossing at 75 mph. She dies on impact. Her car was just ravished, and ripped apart. I had picked up a freind who had just got off of the Eagle and we were going to a train hobby store at the next crossing from the accident. I heard him blowing and then I heard a bang. As I ran out I saw her car shoot across the road. Shocking!!!
So we made our way up there and I dialed 911. Some more people had stopped and they asked me to check if she was still alive. But from looking at the wreckage I said "I doubt it" But I did anyways and I had to look away quickly. Come to find out her daughter was a few cars behind her and she was at the scene. I let her cry on my shoulder and boy did she weep. I offered her comfort until more of her family got there. It even touched my heart and I got teary eyed.
Her family thanked me for staying with her and I left the scene. Not the way to start the day. The Eagle came into Little Rock 4 hours late and it left the accident at 12:15. So that put it at about 8 hours late. Boy I bet there was some upset passengers yesterday. But my prayers are going out to the familyRemember: "LOOK LISTEN AND LIVE"

member of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SP_MSTS

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Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy [View All], ssw_96, 07:43 PM, Jun-26-02, (0) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, SoRwy471, Jun-26-02, 07:52 PM, (1) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, ssw, Jun-26-02, 08:52 PM, (2) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, McDeth, Jun-26-02, 09:03 PM, (3) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, ssw_96, Jun-26-02, 09:51 PM, (4) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, McDeth, Jun-27-02, 04:15 AM, (5) RE: Speaking Of Amtrak, Another Tragedy, highball5, Jun-27-02, 08:22 PM, (6)

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Did she drive around the crossing arm??

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Nope--- LITERALLY drove THROUGH!! the gates.... just goes to show what happens when idiots concentrate more on their durned phones than driving their cars!

Bradley Linda
Waco, Texas

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LAST EDITED ON Jun-26-02 AT 09:03 PM (EDT)

Chalk another one up for the cell phone :/Not to be rude, but why do people (rightly so) always express grief to the victims of the train accident? I mean why do people never show sympathy for the train engineer? I know just because I never hear about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but man, the engineer of that train has to feel like crap right now.....

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My bad, I surely forgot to address the engineer. I know he is in as just as much pain. He has to live with that for the rest of his life.
I know that is heavy on his heart. My grandfather hit a someone when he was a enginner for the CottonBelt, and weeks before he passed he said that sometimes he could still hear the bang from the crash, and this happened in 1985. So I have a general idea of how it works

member of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SP_MSTS

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My dad is an engineer for Amtrak, running along the San Juaquine valley, and to date he has hit 3 people. Two of them were two elderly people, the old man was helping a grandma across the tracks and she slipped and fell, this was about 600 feet in front of a train doing 79 mph.....I've never actually seen my dad cry before, and he did this time I won't even go into the other, since it was even worse.... :/

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No doubt or argument about the impact that a collision has on the train crew. A week or so ago when the Amtrak California Zephyr struck a gravel truck the results were horrific. The truck was literally demolished, then burned, but somehow the truck driver walked away with only minor injuries (I posted the details and pictures of this incident a week or so ago in this forum). At the scene, one of the first things that the deputy sherriffs that were the first to arrive on the scene had to do was to keep the engineer (banged up knee and all) away from the truck driver who was up and walking around the wreckage. I wasn't privy to what was actually said, but in radio communications between law enforcement people, there WOULD be another injury if the two got together. It's hard to imagine the emotions that those involved must go through.

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