About a half hour ago I was driving on Bethany Road in Hazlet, NJ, toward a railroad crossing.
The lights flashed and the wooden bars went down…and, for a moment, my mind flashed to that horrible tragedy in Valhalla, NY (just north of New York City) where a car had been hit by the bars as it was crossing the tracks….and, instead of continuing to safety, the driver got out to see if there were damage….maybe too disoriented by what happened to remember that a train was approaching .
Did this happen because she unsuccessfully tried to beat out the bars? We\’ll never know for sure. But what we do know is that the train, going at full speed since there was no station at that particular crossing, tried but could not stop in time. It hit the car full-on, killing the driver, causing the deaths of a half dozen train passengers, injuries to at least a dozen more and destruction of that part of the train.
In my case, the wooden bars stayed down for about 10-15 seconds. Then, though no train had gone past, inexplicably went up again.
You better believe I anxiously looked both ways before crossing those tracks. And here I am, safe and sound, to blog about it.
Think of this as a sobering reminder that life is a tenuous thing, and can end at any time. How lucky we are to have it.
