The time when Dad’s car was hit by a train

Family legends always begin with something like “you won’t believe what happened” or “The first thing to say is, I’m OK.”

So, when my father called me yesterday morning while Jess and I were on our way to grab some much-needed groceries, the first words were “you aren’t going to believe this” or something like that. Surely, when the next line is “my car got stuck on train tracks and was hit by a train,” your mind finds everything else completely unimportant.

Let’s start with a little context: my dad has a habit of being a good samaritan and helping people whenever possible. Shirt off his back kind of guy, which is in line with how his father was, and to a much lesser extent as I’ve gotten older, how I was raised to be as well.

So when he gets a call to provide help for the granddaughter-in-law of a friend on Sunday, he jumped in his car and went to help.

A long, winding tale of driving around North Alabama and Southern Tennessee ended with him taking her home down some backroads that, apparently, were barely paved and a bit treacherous as the sun was going down.

Just before getting to the granddaughter-in-law’s house, he had to cross a set of railroad tracks. She helped guide him over correctly, but on the way back out on this back road, he didn’t have that assistance.

In the dark, he somehow went the wrong way and got himself wedged on the tracks, no way of getting off. Parallel to the rails.

Another good samaritan comes along and offers to help my dad get his car off the tracks with a set of chains and a quick tug. As the man his about to get into his own vehicle and go get the chains from his house, the crossbars go down and a train is on the way.

Smartphone flashlights are waved in an attempt to get it to stop, but to no avail.

Dad’s car got full-on smacked by a train and totaled. Yes Virginia, you read that correctly: a passenger train hit my dad’s car.

Now, the best part of this entire story is this: after a three-hour cleanup with all kinds of emergency personnel showing up, and police reports and whatnot the conductor of the train says “I don’t need a copy of the report” and without a scratch on the train at all, takes off down the line.

Dad finally got to see his totaled SUV today, which… oof. At least the engine didn’t end up in the driver’s seat where he would have been if he had been stuck and the train came immediately. That kind of vision is one I’m trying to avoid right now.

I keep cycling through this story in my head, the sheer insanity of an afternoon and evening that ended with a sort-of near-death experience of my father. It is the kind of story you never expect someone in your immediate circle to tell you, but also you aren’t afraid to watch on YouTube when a video comes up.

But let me tell you, folks, this happens in real life.

Per a quick Googling for some facts, the US Department of Transportation estimates there are around 5,800 collisions between trains and cars (or trucks) per year, most of those at rail crossings. Among those, 600 people die and another 2,300 are injured.

Figures never matter to people until it happens to them or someone they know. Anecdotal evidence always has a greater impact on the individual than statistics, and I’ll tell you why I know this: you would never have thought about the number of fatalities that happen around rail crossings until it happens to someone you know.

I will admit I hadn’t, even though this kind of thing has happened here and injured a local police officer when he was chasing a suspect on foot and struck by a train.

The takeaway from that is maybe we would do ourselves some good to dig deeper into stories than just the surface events. You might learn something useful in the process, and it might influence your thinking about how to approach problems like rail crossing safety, which obviously remains a problem here in the United States for a number of reasons, not all of them the railroad’s fault.

Dad also asked me to pass along the following safety warning: pay very close attention to the way that railroad crossings work, especially on back roads.

Oh, and if you get stuck on the tracks: DON’T STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE. Get out and call 911.

We all are thankful that luck was on his side and he wasn’t injured, but man… it makes you think.