The Bonehead

It's a little slow at the Burlington yard these days. In fact, I haven't had a trip today. Much of that has to do with the big snowstorm out West. I imagine the tracks need to be plowed out in coal country before the mile- long iron snakes can get moving again and the calls will start coming in to take the pride of the various unions off the trains and back to the yard or the hotel. (They almost get more than I make in two weeks just to ride in a van from Lincoln to Ravenna!)

Most are nice. Some sleep so I don't know if they are nice. Some are not nice. Sounds like America, doesn't it.

And some are dealing with some tough stuff when they get in my van. That happened a couple of weeks ago. I got a call that I was going to take a train crew from Waverly to Creston, IA which is a hub for Burlington. They were being relieved because of an "incident."

The incident started when a motorist noticed an erratic driver on Highway 6 by Waverly. That motorist called 911 and a Nebraska State Trooper responded and caught up with the minivan. He turned on his red and blue lights but the weaver decided to extend his trip. The trooper chased him and finally the guy turned off onto 148th Street near Waverly. He made another turn after that. The problem was he turned onto one of the main tracks of the Burlington Railroad.

Sure enough, a train was coming. The heroic trooper, and I do mean HEROIC ran to the minivan and tried to pull the guy out before the train, now honking like a trumpet player in a Dixieland band, arrived.

The bonehead fought the trooper until there was no time left. The trooper jumped out of the way just a few seconds before the train hit the minivan and turned it into a Mini Cooper.

"The windows just exploded out of that car," the engineer told me as we motored through the Iowa countryside. He was still shaking. It was his first one. The conductor was equally shaken. It was her first crash, too. In the railroad business, the conductor is the one that gets out of the motor and goes back to see what's left.  Most of the time, it isn't pretty.

Bonehead lived after the Waverly Fire Department cut him out of what was left of his car and a life flight chopper flew him to the hospital. It took a few hours to do the investigation and get things cleaned up. (Bonehead will get billed for that including $500 for each train that got held up because of his actions.)

But this crew will remember bonehead. These crews remember every crash they have ever had.

People who try to beat trains and people who decided that's a cool way to end things never think about the crew running the train. They just see that huge iron horse coming right at them and never hear the screams from inside the cab.