Not exactly Q related but something interesting from Galesburg.
K. Thompson
----- Original Message -----
From: <davidknelson@northwesternmutual.com>
To: <kschmidt626@tds.net>; <kthompson4@wi.rr.com>
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 4:26 PM
Subject: galesburg - Where we did our Saturday night railfanning one year
Car flips after turn is missed
No injuries in accident
July 24, 2003
GALESBURG - A 16-year-old Galesburg girl missed making a turn off Water
Street Wednesday night and found herself driving next to the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks near Broad Street as a freight train
approached, according to witnesses.
The vehicle she was driving flipped over when she attempted to get away
from the south BNSF tracks. Moments later, a train traveling on the
north tracks passed the scene.
There were no injuries.
Kelli S. Ralston, 16, 1533 Haynor St., and her three passengers, two
16-year-old Galesburg boys and a 17-year-old Alexis boy, escaped
unharmed.
According to police reports, Ralston was traveling west on Water
Street, approaching Broad Street. She drove through the intersection
and continued to drive west. When the street ended the vehicle was
between the railroad tracks and the abandoned depot's concrete
platform. She tried to turn onto the concrete, but because of the
height difference from the gravel to the concrete, the car rolled over
onto the passenger's side and came to rest on its top.
Two train watchers from near Chicago saw the accident unfold in front
of them just after 10 p.m.
Duane Tuma, 46, Carpentersville, and Joe DiBella, 54, Hoffman Estates,
were sitting in their Dodge pickup in the old Santa Fe Depot parking
lot, just west of North Broad Street and on the south side of the
BNSF's Santa Fe mainline tracks.
Tuma said they were monitoring a scanner and knew a westbound train was
heading their way, running on the northern set of tracks.
"Suddenly we saw this car riding the rails, sparking," Tuma said. The
car became airborne, flipped over and landed on its top, about 100 feet
west of where Tuma and DiBella sat watching.
"I was on the phone talking with my wife and I told her 'I've got to
hang up. There's been an accident,'" DiBella said. He used his cell
phone to call 911.
When the car stopped, the occupants "came running out," DiBella said.
"I've never seen anything like it ... just in the movies, he said.
DiBella said the car involved in the accident was going from east to
west. He said he believed the driver panicked when the crossing gates
at North Broad Street started to lower and drove ahead.
As soon as the car stopped, both men got out of their truck and ran to
see if they could help the occupants of the car.
Debbie Marty, 296 N. Pleasant Ave., mother of Cole Marty, one of the
passengers in the car, said at the scene her son confirmed DiBella's
theory. The driver went straight ahead, across Broad Street, apparently
thinking what was in front of her was a road, Marty said.
Cole Marty said all he remembered was riding upside down and being on
the roof of the car. "I thought the train was going to hit us," he
said.
Both Tuma and DiBella said it was obvious to them that the engineer of
the westbound train, running on the northernmost set of tracks, was
attempting to slow as the accident unfolded. "He did a helluva job,"
Tuma said.
Tuma said he and DiBella had been in Galesburg for Railroad Days, had a
couple of days off and decided to come back to watch trains. They
arrived about 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Tuma's 16-year-old son watched the accident unfold from a room on the
sixth floor of the Ramada Inn, 29 Public Square. He told his father he
called 911, and the operator said the accident already had been
reported.
The occupants of the car declined to be taken from the scene by
ambulance.
The car's air bags did not deploy. A Galesburg firefighter at the scene
said the sensors are located in the front of the vehicle and apparently
did not register enough force to trigger the air bags.
Ralston was ticketed for disobeying a stop sign. Ð
from reports by Editor Emeritus Robert F. Harrison and staff writer
Tammy Bould.
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