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@@raymortamour4086sorry to break it to you bud but there's no such thing as karma. Sometimes bad people just get away with bad things. Trying to convince yourself otherwise is cope.
@@raymortamour4086 you're free to do so pal, but it'll remain true. "Acknowledge God and Buddha but never rely on them". Karma won't dish out justice and even our "justice system" won't honestly judge those most worthy of its punishment. Sad don't you think?
@@syzygy4365No jury trials in China, just judges. “In particular cases, people's assessors and judges will form a collegial panel to hear cases together” (to be more precise, according to a quick google search)
Look at pictures of the train. It's pretty old. Do Chinese trains look like that today? The accident happened in 2005. The husband is Li Pengcheng, but the victim is Hu Jiajin. It's very odd that Stephanie is calling her Jia instead of Hu. Anyway, in case anybody wants to google it, it happened in Sanjiang County, Guangxi. The rail company was the Liuzhou Railway Bureau, later renamed to Nanning Railway Bureau, and then China Railway Nanning Group. Between then and now (2024), due to rapid economic growth, the average salary in China has increased about 6 - 7x, and average salary today in the US is about 4x higher than in China. Therefore, to make a realistic comparison, we should multiply that US$190,000 by about 24x, which comes out to US$4.5 million. (1) for the amount of injury she suffered, still quite a low amount. But it isn't $190,000. (2) Chinese courts (and in fact most courts around the world) tend not to award as much damages as American courts (3) it was still a government agency at the time. In the US, they'd probably scream _qualified immunity_ and claim you can't sue.
$1.5M wasn't even that big of an ask for someone who had a permanent life altering and life threatening experience, (you know, lost 3 LIMBS) due to negligence which is undeniably the train company's fault, and they gave her basically nothing! She almost fucking DIED and they gave her $190,000?! I am utterly appalled by the flop of a courtroom that must've been to look at this poor woman with half a leg and one arm in the face, and tell her all she's getting is $190,000 for almost dying from something that should never even have been a risk in the first place. I feel like here (in Australia), or even in the US, that would have been an EASY $10M lawsuit. Probably more.
This is such a devastating case, but her determination to drag herself out of those train tracks and her phone ringtone helping her it was like her husband was there bought me to tears pls
Please take a moment to realise that this is a case where someone was heavily injured and had their life impacted. This happened to a real person, so stop treating it as a fictional story and stop commenting such shit like 'nO moRe sPoiLeRs gUyS!' Have some empathy.
@@housemana @WonderfulParody You know this is a *real case,* right? Where a real person was severely hurt? Get over your "spoilers," it's not a fun fictional story, have some empathy,
A FUCKING TRAP DOOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ISLE OF A PASSENGER TRAIN. Company says "There is NOTING wrong.". I am SO happy for this lady for having the strength to insist to police to preserve the crime scene and to go and file a lawsuit. The only purpose of it's existence is sheer laziness on behalf of the company employees, it is the company's fault.
Not even $200,000 for losing THREE limbs is just inconceivably cruel. I bet her hospital stay alone was that much. I know not every healthcare system is like the US's but theres no way that was cheap. I hope she and her family continue to heal from this truly traumatic experience.
@@katerinagiannioudi401public healthcare is crap- USA has the BEST healthcare on the planet. FACT Just because yer born doesn’t give you the right to free services from a doctor
There is another disastrous story with a train crash in Greece at Tempi last year where dozens of young people were killed and the government tried to cover it and put the blame on the train driver. And of course the victims’ families got little to no compensations! It would be interesting to make a video on that too so that their story is heard.
My God the way braodcasters handle the situation and blamed it on one man is utterly ridiculous. Literally my jaw dropped when I watched. Don't let me get started on the fact that workers called that shit out, and European government gave money to fix the trains, but the Greek Government didn't do anything!
The ringtone part brought me to tears. If her husband hadn't kept calling her, and she hadn't heard their song, I have a feeling she wouldn't have made it
I had the same thoughts. Her husband constantly calling her not knowing the impact he's making, saved his love's life. It's always the little and most unexpected things that go a long way
"That amount is ridiculous, it's never been done before"... Well I'd guess falling through a trap door in a moving train, losing 2 full limbs and half of a 3rd, dragging yourself off the tracks using your remaining mangled limb, then lifting yourself up enough to get attention from another train speeding by, doing all of this while you've lost enough blood that you probably should have bled to death, and somehow managing to survive and appear in front of a court had never been done before either... It's absolutely sickening that this family is left to handle this immense financial responsibility on their own. Hell, the amount she asked for likely wouldn't have even been enough to cover all of her immediate and future needs, and they give her such a tiny fraction of that... Beyond outrageous.
I was appalled she asked for so little, and horrified with what she received. Its atrocious places can make so much money and be so greedy when they ruin a life.
Adjusted for the increase in China's average salaries since 2005, and adjusting for the difference in average American and Chinese salaries, the $190k she received is actually equivalent to about $4.5m today. Unfortunately, Stephanie never mentioned that this happened in 2005, and the final court judgement was in 2007. And people do not make allowances for the differences in income level between the US and China. The appropriate factor to multiply by is 24x. Salaries in the US is about 4x that in China today. And salaries in China in 2024 is about 6 - 7x that of China in 2005.
@@danielch6662 good point never even thought of a lot of the things you brought up, that makes it seem less like the court spat in her face. rotten mango really should mention the settlements adjusted for inflation and exchange rates etc.
She did mention it was in 2005. Secondly, the figure was worked out by calculating the amount of money she would need for all her care at the time n in the future. Did you not listen to the video? Only a portion was for moral distress. How can any normal decent person think that what she received was fair or just?! What that woman went through n is still going through is unimaginable n it was a clear fault of the train company.
@@bengibbs1318 nobody said what the company did or paid was fair or just, it would just be nice to have these international cases more transparent by including typical salery of said country and what setlements would be inflation adjusted. it is relevant and not doing so is almost sensationalizing the story so it seems even worse than it already is.
EXACTLY. Like somehow no one's ever stepped on it before this? That should be a huge concern and everyone who works on the train should at least know about it. The most suspicious part to me is how did it close back after she fell through? It had to have, if they couldn't find the hole right? Unless someone knowingly closed it before the husband started looking? Idk there's no motive to intentionally lay this trap but still.. doesn't it seem almost intentional?
@@HopAndLockDropSoppityPopI agree. Either this HAS happened before and the train company keeps everything hidden, it’s a major cover up OR it was intententional by someone who didn’t want her to survive. Edit: ok so I did just get to the end of the video and it seems like just extreme negligence on the company’s part. Again it’s hard to imagine that this has NEVER happened before. But sounds like the train company just wanted to save a few bucks fixing the old train car. Such an infuriating case. My heart breaks for jia… like even $1million may not cover her medical bills. It’s not like she would’ve walked away rich. WHICH she deserves. I cannot even begin to imagine the mental and physical pain she goes through everyday
@@rachel_ellingson exactly! Cause those mfs be acting like this is rare to dismiss her case as not their fault. How is it that they have a false hall in the middle of a walking aisle, they're acting like no one has stepped on it and suffered the same thing
Stephanie explained it. Weren't any of you listening to what she said? There's no trap door in the middle of every train car in China. There was a mechanism that was supposed to secure the opening in a fool-proof way, but was apparently and very unfortunately not fool-proof enough. Obviously. Because she fell through it. The way Stephanie described it, I don't think it was just a plate secured by a single bolt. It was a bit more secure than that, but still not safe enough. And they had it only on a couple of train cars because they were calibrating the a/c. I assume the day after it happened, they pulled those cars so that it doesn't happen again. Because very few people are as stupid as Boeing. Brushing off the first accident and blaming it on _third world pilots are not as well trained and not as good as western pilots_ , only to have it happen the second time was the start of all their problems.
I’ve listened to so many of Stephanie’s stories, but this one truly scared me to my core. The feeling of hopelessness and imminent danger every second is pure torture.
What the courts gave her is criminal. They should be MADE to look her in the eye and tell her that $190,000 is all she's worth. Corporations are criminals.
@@danielch6662 Did you stop watching the video halfway? How about the engineers who put a hole in the floor because they were too lazy to do repairs safely. You see it as blame and scapegoating because you have no empathy for victims, only for corporations.
@@danielch6662it's the company that doesn't care. if they did, a very preventable accident would not have occurred. what kind nonsense company allows their train to have a trap door in a hallway? a hallway where people up and down in? a neglectful avoiding cost stupid company is what allows that.
@@danielch6662Either you’re someone who is Unloved and can’t fathom even the smallest of idea what it’s like to be loved Or you Quit watching the video midway because your have the Attention span of a peanut
@@danielch6662 The ones responsible for putting that on the FLOOR. That's clearly an STUPID idea. In Brazil we have "homicidio doloso", meaning murder where you had the intention of ending up killing someone and "homicidio culposo" murders where you had no intention of killing someone but someone died as direct result of your actions anyway. That's clearly the last. When you are dealing with people's lives you DO NOT get the right to make some mistakes. Simple as that. Anyone that greenlighted the idea of having that on the floor, IT DOESN'T MATTER if they realized that could happen or not, are responsible for what happened to her. For instance, if you drink and drive and kill someone it's simply MURDER. It doesn't matter whether you WANTED to kill. If you were driving drunk you ASSUMED the risk someone could die as a result of you actions. Jail, of course.
This hit hard,my husband was in a airboat in the swap of south Louisiana and the boat hit something and over turned cut completely his lower right leg off by the prop with was a 4feet 4 blade prop.he thank God survived.i was 7months pregnant with our daughter so we named her faith bc we knew God would take care of us and He has.thank you for sharing this story.blessings to the family,prayers for her and all to heal physically and emotionally ❤
You're like 20 years too late. The accident happened in 2005. If you want to google it, her name is Hu Jiajin. But other than Stephanie, nobody's talking about it in the English world. You have to put in her actual name (in Chinese) into the search engine to get anything: 胡家津, and then use google translate. That's what I did. I don't read Chinese either.
PS: and the only reason I found anything at all is because Stephanie and her husband have a website for this podcast, and there are links/references there.
She will never recover from this. Her mental state, her care, she needs round the clock care. The Train Co. should pay her millions. Don’t they have insurance to cover accidents ? 😢
If you want to know, you can go bug her and find out. It's been 19 years already. Her accident was in 2005. I wouldn't though. Not unless I've collected a large amount of donations, and the only reason to bother them is to find out how to pass it to them.
The fact that they wouldn't meet her eyes and STILL said that she was asking for too much ?!? Insane, have them fall there too, all of them, jfc how can so many people be responsable for it and responsable for giving her justice and just fail her so much and so- I don't have the words, I'm just glad she has support and can be with her family and is getting better
The people that couldn't look at her were the hospital staff who couldn't bear it because the knew exactly how much she was suffering every time they had to care for her. But it still needed to be done. And THEY were obviously not responsible for her falling through the floor of the train.
@@danielch6662 ofc but she also said that in the courtroom noone would meet her in the eyes, those are who I'm talking about obvs, I'm just the doctors and nurses where great
I don't know how you managed to retell a story as if you were there. Your memory and the similes captivate me. So very sad for this brave survivor. Thank you Stephanie for shining light on the gross negligence of that train company. Now known because of you.
I don't think her intention was to exit her life. She wanted to imagine what it would be like by lying there when train runs over you. Which is..... 😖😖 I don't personally have to lie there tbh. I can imagine it just like that and it makes me feel so..... I can't even find the words what that woman went through. Truly speechless.
This is absolutely horrific! That poor woman is stuck in a living hell and to deprive her of any sort of proper compensation should be illegal. I remember years ago there was a rollercoaster crash over here in the uk and a young woman lost her leg and she was awarded a multimillion pound compensation.
I'm no lawsuit expert but something tells me if this happened in the states she would have gotten 1 million dollars at the VERY least. Why didn't the courts grant her that? It's crazy to me.
The company shouldn't even exist anymore. This wasn't a little "whoopsie" where someone tripped on it and broke their ankle. It was, at the very least, an extremely negligent oversight that resulted in a woman's mutilation and near-death. The company should have taken full responsibility and been shut down. This whole thing is insane, I can't believe it's real.
Only 190k?! And she even have to beg for it? I really hate those money hungry companies, I couldn't even imagine the hell she has to went through just to be degraded like that. Really infuriating.
If there is a HOLE on a fucking train any sensible person will warn their passengers and put some signs, caution tape or even not decommission the train.
There's no visible hole on the floor. That is exactly the point. It operated like a trap door though it was not intended to be one. There is a mechanism that's supposed to keep it closed and safe to step on. But over time, vibrations made the mechanism unsafe, and then, only if you step at exactly the correct spot, does it flip open and you fall through. Think of the door on the 737 that made several flights despite no bolt ever being installed. After bouncing around through multiple takeoffs and landings, it finally did bounced out of the mechanism that was keeping it attached to the plane.
Only in a country with robust health and safety legislation. That is prosecuted severely when companies fail to abide by the laws. Our expectations of 'common sense' are built on legislation MAKING companies do basic stuff, every law was written because someone or many people, got killed because companies generally will do NOTHING that costs them money UNLESS they will be prosecuted for it. The People's Republic of China has bugger all in the way of a health and safety culture and their workplace and social accidents are horrific and common and very reminiscent of stuff that happened a lot in the west before wer started writing proper laws regarding how public and workers should be protected.
Hearing Stephanie discribe the feeling of phantom limbs is so horrifying when you remember that so many chindren in Gaza might be going through the same thing but without medical care or compensation.
1.5 million isn’t even good enough. And they didn’t even give it to her? I feel so bad and guilty. The entire time when you were talking about her injuries I could even look at myself, I could feel every part of my body and to think someone can not do that? I feel so bad for her. She had her entire life shattered in a few seconds and they couldn’t even give her less than a quarter of what she deserved.
Gia was stronger than she thinks, braver than many... She may not be really happy for a long time, but i think this is because she didn't get to mourn her old self, her complete body. This story made me think of a pigeon we saved last year. he was all bleedy, and we know that he had to survive the night to make it. in the attack, he lost his left ear and eye, and he is a bit bald on the head. Luckily, that evening, we found a good vet/hospital and he stayed there some 5 nights, then he came home with us. his wound slowly healed and he can fly again, even. but only indoors. he also had some injuries to his toes, ,but those were old. i think he is a brave pigeon now living with us and he is very much loved. I'm sure Gia receives a lot of love as well, even though her family can't understand her physical pain.
The train company no longer exists. It got merged with other regional railways back in 2013 to form what is now called China Railways (CR). And let's hope Hu already has, since the accident was in 2005. PS: her name is Hu Jiajin 胡家津
My heart goes out to her. The trauma, bitterness, anger and hurt is so intense with something like this as an outsider there is nothing you can do accept be there, be patient and give them time. My mom had a terrible car accident before I was born that destroyed her. I was her miracle baby because she was told that she would no longer be able to have kids. She ended up in the hospital for 6 months, in a nursing home for another 6 months being rehabilitate but still went home in a real chair. Her back had been broken, her pelvis crushed to bits. The muscles of her inner thighs torn out to such a point her femoral arteries were bare but somehow not damaged. She had a great career before this happened and to this day she cannot remain in any one position for more than a few hours without ended up in excruciating pain. She spent my entire childhood lost, bitter and angry. It was like I didn't even exist. She only started to come out of it when I was in my senior year in high school and I made a point to try connecting with her and seeing the real her past the bitterness. She's much better now and doesn't remember much from that period of time. All this and it's nothing like what Gia went through. She may never recover emotionally. The way the courts treated her is unethical and unfair to her. My heart goes out to her.
The way you explain the story literally makes me feel like I’m there on the scene watching the entire situation unfold. With that being said, what she experienced was absolutely horrifying. The fact that she survived is a miracle and her determination and will to live is heroic.
I cannot believe her resilience and strength. What an incredible, heroic woman. I’m so sad for her that she has gone through this and that the awful train company got away with shirking their responsibility after they butchered her!
When Stephanie read out her injuries I cried my eyes out, and I have lost my entire right leg had limb saving surgery on my left arm, all my organs shut down, I went into a coma for a month, once out of coma, after two weeks I had sepsis for the 3rd time, my family had been called in 3 times to say good bye to me as I wasn't going to make it through the night, obviously I survived each time, after whilst still In hospital whilst having dialysis for my kidneys, I had urinary problems, they found vegetation on my heart and had problems with my lungs and was in hospital for a further 3 and half months on a normal ward after leaving the ICU, but still I cried hearing how mucn worse this poor ladies injuries were.
I’m so mad at the train company and that court. The fact it was so bad they couldn’t even have the balls to LOOK AT HER yet denied her compensation. Unbelievable.
This is so mad. That train company is spitting in jia's face. When i was once sick, i couldn't leave my bed for 2 WEEKS and i was so frustrated. Jia couldn't stand up for over 9 months . I can't imagine how frustrated and irritated she must have been And the train company finding it "unreasonable" to give jia the sum of money (which is literally nothing to the life long damage jia now have) This is so frustrating. I really hope Jia is getting all the support she can have and life a long healthy and happy life
that train company shouldnt even exist anymore. She is incredible for not giving up and wanting to live the human mind can be so strong. I can't believe this happened to someone its so fucked up and to barely compensate her! That train company should belong to her now. The disrespect and lack of care for survivors is maddening.
I am so sorry for gia, this is actually horrible. My heart dropped when I herd her husband say that she doesn’t have a leg. This is heartbreaking and I wouldn’t wish this on ANYONE. I really really hope she can get a happy ending. I wish we could do something for her. :(
Each time i watch Steph's content at night, i always fall asleep within mins, and have to rewatch it the next morning/day, cos her voice is soooooo~ soothing! 😆 Keep all the amazing stories coming in, dearie! I'm a legit fan of Rotten Mango chanel! ❤️ (ok, rewatching this episode now)😌
JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED! Perhaps the law has being bought? How come the judge or jury has as if no heart vompasion and no empathy at all?! Disgusting!
How the hell does this even happen?! As someone who loves trains, this makes me feel sick and gives me anxiety. Got to the explanation. WITAH!!!!!!!? Who the hell makes a decision like this!?!!!? 🤬
It's absolutely crazy that she even survived in the first place with the speed that train was going!!!! I can't even begin to imagine the pain she must have gone through. I have so much respect for Jia for being such a strong survivor depite struggling mentally. I hope she knows how incredible she is and if she can survive that unbelivable accident, pulling herself along those train tracks then she can survive her new life and adapt to new ways of living. Thank you Stephanie for once again being the best story teller and shedding light on this and many other cases!! I've watched every single one of your videos and I can't wait to learn more!!
Is there no GoFundMe for this poor lady? If she is going to be so let down by the courts and train company, why can’t we, human beings with hearts, at least try to do something to help? I am not well off in any way, I live with my own debilitating chronic pain conditions that forced me to give up my nursing career, but I will go without a few things in order to donate what I can. I just feel so outraged that this lady lost everything in an instant and the greedy and pathetic rail company wouldn’t cough up a decent compensation for her. Even the $1.5m doesn’t seem anywhere near enough compensation for what she has been through, through no fault of her own, and what she will continue to go through for the rest of her live. I am disgusted that the courts awarded her such a pathetic amount as compensation. They should be ashamed of themselves. I wonder if they would think that was an adequate amount of compensation if this had happened to them, or one of their loved ones. It definitely doesn’t seem like they put themselves in her position, when they made their ruling. Shame on them. Shame on them all.
Multi-million awards are actually not that common outside of the US. The amount WAS small, but was in reality about 22x the average salary in China back in 2005. That still sounds low, but not as absurdly low as when you hear $190k. Two reasons (1) it's China, not the US. So everything has to be scaled down, because even today, average salaries in China is lower (2) it happened 2005 years ago, and salaries in China has increased about 6 - 7x in the past 2 decades.
i’m shocked no one saw her fall or that no one else fell or even noticed the unsafe flooring. the whole situation is shocking, thank you for making more people aware of this. it’s scary how much we have to rely on others for our own safety, and the people responsible in this situation didn’t take that job seriously at all
I work as a nurse in a hospital i see and hear stories like this everyday yet every time my heart breaks for the people who have gone through something like this. This is why i do what i do....to bring happiness even just a little bit to my patients who have gone through the toughest of trials. I hope that she and her family as well as anyone else reading this can find the happiness that they deserve ❤
i'm surprised that she actually survived not most things animals or people who get ran over by a train don't make it she a special person to have survived that
This episode hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm a veteran of the US Army and I was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2007. We were on a night Patrol in 2007, I was walking point. This was in Fallujah which is a hellhole and another story unto itself. I rounded a corner and we were set up perfectly for an ambush. I got stitched in my right arm by a machine gun and my right arm was pretty much instantly amputated. The things that you're saying in this video about phantom pain and other things are absolutely 💯 real. The thing that drives me nuts the most is it my right hand itches like no tomorrow. It literally has driven me to tears. And I also still get joint pain kind of things or just really weird shooting pains in an area of my arm that is no longer there. My injury was similar to Gia's in that Doc "Bob" ( super cool dude ) so he was able to put two tourniquets on what was left of my right arm. And if you want to talk about pain, just have somebody apply not just one tourniquet but two of them and have them do it correctly. Hand on my heart, it will bring you up off the table or in my case the ground and lose consciousness. Anyway I just wanted to throw my two cents worth in to this discussion for any of the doubters that this is the real deal and it's an absolute nightmare. Again, I'm a new subscriber and I've been binge-watching your episodes! I love your presentation, your snarky personality and I don't know, just everything about you and your channel are fantastic! My name is Jim and I'm from Seattle Washington here in America. Best wishes to you and best of luck with your fantastic channel! 🇺🇲💯🙏💖☕️🚬
For some reason this story hit me as more horrifying than many others, including sadistic murders. Maybe because it's such a faceless freak accident you don't even know who's to blame for it, or because all of that debilitating injuries and pain stroke this poor woman while she was just calmly going back from the bathroom... It's heartbreaking how a human being can be completely ruined, chewed and spat out in a split of a second - and how no one cares about it after. The indifference of the company responsible and the offensively low reparation the court suggested - it's not just a physically intolerable experience, but also a devastating humiliation :( It somehow makes me have less than a little faith in humanity as a whole.
I really hope you bringing this much attention to her care helps her and maybe some lawyers will step in pro-bono to help her win more in a new case. They owe her millions.
Had to listen to this one.... your contacts are freaking me out! lol They don't look bad but you are already very pretty! And talented and clearly smart. :)
this story is truly traumatizing , this woman deserves way more than 190k , she deserves the world for what she went through , my brain cant physically function the pain she went through , my body hurts thinking about it , this woman is truly the meaning of strong
What’s the name of the train company? People need to make it viral, so the train company will get bankrupt because of the social pressure!!! and pay lots of money to Jia eventually..She deserves everything to compensate her life back!
I know someone who survived getting hit by a train. David was my family’s landlord at the time. We lived on the same property out in the country, just outside of town. He would drive his truck into town at least once a week; my parents everyday, for work. Travelling alongside the main road into the town is Canada’s transcontinental railway. As you can imagine, it gets a fair bit of traffic. The tracks themselves are dotted with uncontrolled crossings. There is a stop sign, but no warning system. You have to look, or if there’s trees, listen, yourself. I don’t think a lot of people appreciate the risk in crossing them. Even i, knowing this story, often cross without paying much attention. Anyway. Like i said, David would cross at least once a week, often more. It was routine, he never thought much about it. One evening he was driving home, and turned onto the road he lived on. The space between the road and the tracks is not much longer than the commercial truck he was driving, and he looked casually east, then west, to check for trains. The sun shone down the tracks going west, it was hard to see, but you would think something as big and loud as a train would be easy to spot. The road around the tracks is very poorly maintained, so to avoid damaging his truck, he slowly crosses the first set of tracks, then the second. The instant the cab of the truck is over the second set of tracks, a shadow appears to the west, a moment later, all David remembers is impact, then the sound of metal, crunching and twisting all around him. Stephanie, what you said about how long a train takes to stop is 100% correct. Where i live, rural roads are divided by a one mile by two mile grid. The moment the train hit David’s truck at the intersection, the driver pulled the emergency brake. The train didn’t stop until the next intersection, all the while the truck crumpled like paper before it. At the next intersection, lives another family friend. Her husband manages their farm and works in town, while she, Julie, is a nurse. To this day, their family lives within 200 metres of the train tracks. Every night, around the same time, she would hear the train go by, shaking the house and interrupting every peaceful evening. So she knew something was wrong just by the sound: first the deafening crunch of metal, then the screeching of metal wheels on metal tracks. Then the silence after the train came to a halt. Julie is a nurse; remember? She knows what a train could do to someone. This is an emergency; there’s no time to wait for an ambulance. She dials 911 as she grabs her first aid kit in the kitchen. Knowing full well that whatever she sees will likely traumatize her for life, she rushes towards the crumpled pile of metal. She told our family that she recognized David’s truck immediately. The cab was obviously unrecognizable, but part of the back was still intact. This was practically a neighbour, we all go to church together, visit each other, get together for coffee, Julie and David’s wife work together at the hospital. Julie says as soon as she sees the cab, she is convinced David would not only be dead, but crushed and torn up beyond recognition. She sees the train driver get out of the front engine, and stumble away. He looks sick. He sees Julie with her first aid kit, and begins repeatedly crying; “I don’t want to see him, I don’t want to see him! Please don’t tell me what he looks like!” By now, Julie feels pretty sick as well. But there’s a chance David’s still alive, and so she stumbles towards the remains of the cab. To her shock, she sees that the crushed metal had formed a sort of cocoon, and inside, was David. Not only does he appear alright, he’s even conscious! “Are you alright?” She asks “I guess, for being hit by a train. Somethings wrong with my leg though.” She assures him she had already called 911, that help was on the way, and checks his vitals as well as she can from the awkward angle. He really does seem fine. Then she remembers the train driver. I saw a job posting for being a train conductor once, you had to be able to lift at least 100 pounds easily, work crazy shifts, be very good under stress. I’ve heard from former train conductors that it requires a lot more physical and mental strength than one might think. I never met the train conductor, but i think we all know the type. This is the type of man who is very tough, mentally and physically. This same man is currently sitting beside the train, sobbing. The guilt is crushing him, probably the same way he imagines the truck driver being crushed. Julie walks over to him, he seems to be in worse condition than David. “He’s alright! Come meet him.” The driver refuses. “No, seriously! I promise, he’s alive, and in good condition!” It takes a lot of persuasion, but finally she convinces him to come see. The moment the two meet, and the driver sees David, smiling and talking, the guilt leaves his body. David has always been the person to be happy no matter the situation, and even with his leg partially pinned beneath the remains of his truck, he assures the train driver that he’ll be alright, and that no, he doesn’t blame him, and that yes, he has enough to cover the cost of the truck. No problem. By now, they can hear sirens, and a few minutes later, the fire department is cutting David out from the wreckage, and paramedics rush him to the hospital. His right leg was completely crushed, and it was a very long recovery with many surgeries. There were hardly any other injuries. He walks with a bit of a limp now, but you would never know. The remains of his truck sit proudly in front of his house, and his young granddaughter has probably heard the story a million times by now.
