Sad Sunday

 As I have mentioned before, we have a scanner at our house that picks up some public services like police, fire and EMS.  Not local to my town, though, who scrambles their signals.  This happened when my son was promoted to police detective and, despite his claims, I hold him responsible.  

We do pickup most county bands, the turnpike, the state patrol, various ambulance services, and all kinds of stuff like snow plows and lately, a school walkie talkie from somewhere.  It is our background noise. 

We know it's a weird habit, but so many family, friends and neighbors call and expect us to know "what is going on" and what is up with the traffic.

Last night a family visiting from out of state was in the area.  There is a nearby community (larger than ours) where a big river cuts through town. Right on Main Street there is a four lane bridge with sidewalks. There are also smaller walking bridges to the north and south a ways and there is a railroad trestle with clearly posted NO TRESPASSING signs.  This city does a lot of fishing from the banks and bridges. And I often see people on that trestle. 

And you know what happened. Last night a train struck a group on the trestle. What I heard and what is currently being released doesn't quite match but I believe that two women, a mother and daughter, were instantly killed.  I also think a 12-13 year old was critically injured and lifeflighted out.  And someone actually rescued a six month old baby from the water, performed CPR until services arrived and this baby was also life flighted.  Both are in critical condition. 

And the crowd saw a five year old girl in a pink sweatshirt fly off the bridge and get swept away in a fast moving current. Authorities employed uncountable other agencies to assist in river walking, borrowed zillions of rescue boats, used regular drones until the thermal, infrared drones could get there, flew helicopters over the river and then switched to special copters with searchlights when it got dark. The train itself was carefully inspected. This went on from about 3pm to 1am.  And they had to stop. 

It takes your breath away. In a instant. The family was from another country, far, far away. Could they read the signs? Did the presence of others on the trestle make them feel safe?  I doubt there is an interpreter in my state that speaks this language. Why were they here? And I should mention that this is not the first similar incident in this community. Every few years a train hits someone on that trestle or someone falls off one of the bridges that is posted no trespassing.  

The whole community was glued to the drama with horrible sadness knowing what the outcome would be. I could hear the sadness and horror in the voices of every single responder.  There was a brief moment of hope late last night when a copter with thermal found a spot on the bank that turned out to be a baby deer. The speed of those on the ground, the rush of the spotlight, the voices of hope even though they knew there was no hope. 

A sad Sunday.