So the call comes in mid-day while I’m at my regular (breadwinner) job. “MVA Car vs Train” it reads. I have no radio with me because the radio doesn’t work in my lead-lined office. Uh….that could be ugly. I’m thinking derailment, crushed car in the middle of a field, really messy extrication, etc. So I make my excuses to my boss and head off to the scene…at least a 15 minute drive if the traffic is light.
Once in my car, the radio traffic is relatively calm. The emergency is unfolding slowly. By the time I hit the highway, radio traffic is sparse but the emergency is ongoing…no one has called off responding firefighters and there is some staging going on to prevent congestion on the narrow road leading to the train tracks. Shortly before I arrive, the Incident Commander advises that the train has left the scene.
By the time I arrive, the call has been cancelled and half the apparatus have cleared from the scene. As the semi-official photographer, I move on past the police officer who has blocked the scene, parked somewhat near the accident perimeter and make my way to the train tracks.
The first thing that strikes me is the lack of drama that a “car vs train” collision would normally suggest. The driver, a young woman, is seated near a somewhat crumpled vehicle, obviously upset but not in shock since the paramedics have already cleared the scene. Looking at the vehicle, I can see that the train (a steam train…going about 20-25 Kph I imagine) must have nicked her just as she was passing the crossing. I looked up and down the tracks and tried to imagine how it all unfolded.
And actually, I couldn’t imagine it. At that speed, and with visibility of at least 1 Km, she should have seen the train (lots of steel, a big light, whistle, smoke, etc). She didn’t. But she lived.
If a human being can miss 200 tons of steel slowly approaching an intersection with a whistle blowing and a cloud of smoke rising into the summer sky it makes me wonder how much the rest of us are paying attention when on the road. She could have easily been crushed. A few heartbeats earlier, a bit of hesitation on the accelerator, and her life would have taken a horrible tangent. Fate or luck? I can’t tell…she may be feeling bad that she got a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign. I’d like to think of it as a message from high above…keep it real. Distraction can kill.