It didn't hit me right away what actually had happened. All of a sudden, there was a lot of commotion with Conductors running, people talking all at once, but my concern was the veggie subway that lay on the floor. I just wanted to clean it up as fast as I could. I felt embarrassed, because I couldn't understand in that second how it ended up there. I felt as if everyone was watching me seeing my shame. Isn't that funny how we believe such crummy things about ourselves in a moment of stress? Of all the things to think about at that moment, a sandwich?
The Engineer came over the PA system: "Three trucks went around the railroad guards. Two made it, but not the third."
We had hit a truck (a little smaller than a semi) hauling John Deere tractors. Don't ask me how he maneuvered that load in between those guards. Maybe he went around the whole thing completely? People that sat in the window seat claim to have seen that equipment flying in the air on contact, shattering into pieces all over the road. That was 10:30 a.m., one hour into our trip, maybe ten minutes from Joliet Train Station.
We sat there in that train for the next five hours while the Police conducted their investigation. Then the firefighters had to hose down the area by the train, because 300 gallons of fuel spilled over engulfing the air with it's pungent fumes. Headache city! Thank goodness it was windy that day. The medical team went car by car checking any injuries. Three people went to hospital for either head pain or backache pain. Public Works had to clear the area of all debri, all the streets were closed off until the Police released the scene.
In the midst of it all, Emily and I passed the time quite well playing Go Fish, Crosswords and Word Search puzzles. Everything went well, time passing quickly until the batteries on our phone died. You see, we had no power because the engine was gone, right? No one could recharge anything. The last two hours seemed to drag a little. We have exhausted all our entertainment and we were beginning to get hungry and tired.
It didn't help that everyone around us were beginning to feel the same. Tensions grew hotter, so by the time the Amtrak Representative made his walk through, people exploded with anger. They kept getting off the train, taking pictures and smoking around all that fuel. They didn't seem to understand why they couldn't smoke. We have out stayed our welcome.
An incoming train to Chicago connected to us and pulled us back to Joliet where we could get off and continue on with our destination via Coach Buses. Or you could continue back to Union Station. We decided to continue on since we already had the Hotel paid for, plus our family was waiting for us and we were off from work. Let it not be for naught. We boarded our bus at 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. We've been on the road since 7 a.m.
To be continued . . .
Have a Blessed day everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment