veterans day accident

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Sometimes "the show must go on" train of thought must be derailed. Sometimes it's okay for the show to stop, especially for a freight train.

It could have been the high school football team or varsity cheerleaders. Maybe the town council members... Because it was veterans does that make it any more or less traumatic?

Hey, Legion! I just watched the news and they said the truck was already on the tracks when the arms came down on top of them. They were waiting for the truck in front to move. Evidentally, no one saw the train. The arms bounced back up after they came down on the people riding. Klbk didn't say whether the RR had been notified about the parade or not. Beyond sad.

i had heard that the flashers and the arms were already down not to sure if the arms were down but the flashers were def on and more than a mile the train began honking.

Wow, that's different than what they said tonight. They had an official that said the horn sounds at 20 seconds. I thought that was a pretty short time, especially if the train saw the truck on the tracks. I just checked and klbk doesn't have the clip on line yet. Maybe later on?

Found the print version.

[link to everythinglubbock.com]

OK, I gotta ask... why in the hell didn't they just jump off the damn float or whatever they were riding on? Surely they saw, and heard, the thing coming. Not to mention the arms and lights. WTF?

Most of the vet's were in wheelchairs and couldn't. One man died when he saw the train and pushed his wife off the flatbed. He fell on the other side. She made it, he didn't.

The train was moving at 61 or 62 mph. The truck had started across the track when the signals came on and the arms came down. They did indeed hit people on the truck. From the time they came down until the train hit was less than 30 sec, and one witness said it was more like 10 sec. This was a cool-headed witness, who applied a tourniquet to that woman's leg and drove her to the hospital. So, not one to be overly dramatic. I haven't heard the final statistics from the NTSB on the elapsed time. But it wasn't much.

I live in Midland. This has been traumatic for all of us. And the big deal is that these vets and their spouses have already been through horrible injuries and the fight to recover from them, due to serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. They came to Midland, after months or more of healing and therapy, to be honored for their service and treated to a fun and enjoyable weekend. For 9 years, we've honored vets from all over the country this way. This year turned out horrible and tragic.

The finger-pointing and blame game will start soon enough. Right now most of us here are just trying to cope with the horror and sadness of it all.

Hey, granny. I forgot you lived down there. I can't imagine what all of you have been going through. Our local news have run stories about some of the vets. It's been heart-breaking. for everyone at the parade and in M/O.

I was stunned to hear this. These people have been through enough.

I heard that it's a law that there has to be a certain amount of feet between vehicles passing over a train track. I think 100 feet. To my understanding the floats were one behind the other. One was already off the track but still close to the one on the track. There wasn't room for the float driver on the tracks to drive off.

Such a horrible tragedy for a great group of people.


Last Edited by truthwillsetyoufreeagain on 11/19/2012 01:11 AM

I usually take the grandkids with lots of flags, and find a place to watch the parade go by, but didn't this year. I was heading home from running errands and saw the convention center with all the US flags flying and people waiting and the horseback riders carrying flags just arriving. I pulled over to wait for the rest of the parade, while talking to my daughter on the phone. She was telling me about a bad train wreck, and where it was. I made the comment that the parade would be delayed because that was the route it took. And I headed home to check the news about the wreck. I cannot even begin to describe my shock and horror when I heard that the train had hit one of the trucks carrying the vets and their spouses to the banquet.

Thanks for the compassion and understanding. I'm thankful, if that's the right way to put it, that the death toll wasn't higher. It could have been so much worse. But there were lots of witnesses, some very young, who will have to cope with what they saw. I heard today that the train crew is struggling, very understandably. They could see what they were hitting, after all. This whole tragedy has impacted hundreds of lives. It's something that we won't soon forget.

But on a positive note, the comapssion and caring of the people of Midland came through when the appeal went out for help with the expenses of bringing in victims' families, providing food and meeting other needs...and in less than a day, over $100,000 was collected. We will help each other get through this, because that's the kind of folks that live here.

Thanks again, Buckeye!!

edit to add: the driver almost got the truck off the tracks...the train hit at the very end of the trailer. But it was enough to whip the trailer around, along with the people still on it.

Last Edited by justanothergranny on 11/19/2012 01:18 AM

“You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang-banger will get shot; or a truck-load of soldiers will be blown up…Nobody panics; because it’s all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die? Well, then, everyone loses their minds!“

thanks for the replies.