Midland, Texas, train hits a festive trailer carrying wounded veterans and their wives in a parade - 4 killed
I don’t understand in this day and age of computers how we can’t have some way to prevent these type of car/train crossing accidents…..
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-vets-train-20121116,0,2695149.story
4 killed as train hits veterans parade float in Texas
Midland, Texas, is stunned when a train hits a festive trailer carrying wounded veterans and their wives in a parade.
By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times
November 15, 2012, 9:41 p.m.A parade honoring wounded veterans turned tragic Thursday when a freight train crashed into a festive flatbed trailer carrying about two dozen vets and their wives in Midland, Texas, killing four people and injuring 16, officials said.
The Midland Police Department said two flatbed trailers being towed in the annual Hunt for Heroes parade were crossing the railroad tracks shortly after 4:30 p.m. when the locomotive struck the second one.
Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said the truck and trailer had nearly made it across before the collision.
“It was pandemonium at the point of impact. Some [of the veterans] tried to jump and protect each other, their girlfriends and their wives,” he told the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
The veterans had been sitting on chairs on the flatbed, which was decorated with American flags and signs identifying each veteran, photos showed.
Patricia Howle waited at a nearby traffic light as the train approached, sounding its horn, the Associated Press reported.
“My daughter said, ‘Momma, the train is coming!’ and she was looking for it as I saw the trailer begin to cross the railroad tracks,” Howle told KOSA-TV. “People were jumping off, trying to get off that trailer, and the truck was still rolling.
“People on the trailer saw the train coming and they were flying in every direction. I covered my face. I didn’t want to see.” —->Continued