Sweetpea Bicycles

So by the time Natalie and I got home from work, and Whole Foods, and traffic, I was pretty done with Thursday. But she wanted to go running. I protested. I knew that this was a futile effort, and it wasn’t that I really didn’t want to run, but just that I didn’t feel really stoked on running after a long day.

I suggested mixing it up. “Maybe we run up 25th?” This wasn’t going to do anything but put us into traffic. “Maybe we hit the trails?” It was already completely dark out. The waterfront run. Like always. As we were heading out, Natalie said to me “I feel that I am making you do something that you don’t want to do.” “I guess I am just sort of bored with running right now,” I responded. We started out down Thurman street.

A couple minutes into it, I was feeling better. But when we got down towards Naito, we realized that a train was coming and that the barriers were coming down. We were about to turn down a side street when we saw the tail end of an SUV going around the train signals and over a seven foot pile of dirt that block the road. The guy seemed to be saying, “I am in an SUV, and I’ll be dammed if I have to wait for some train.”

Our first reaction was to make a turn, but for some unknown reason, I said, “Let’s go check it out and see if he makes it.” As we rounded the corner, we saw the SUV in the middle of the tracks heading towards town attempting to cross over the tracks. Then we saw him stop, and saw his reverse lights turn on. Then off. Then on. Then off. The SUV was rocking back and forth not going anywhere.

The train came around the corner.

The sensation that we felt at this point can only be understood as the scene unfolded. First, a bizarre excitement as to what would unfold closely watching to see what would happen, and then horror at the prospect that we would see the SUV get hit by the train.

The train got closer and was not slowing down. The guy in the SUV was not getting out of his truck. It was like watching a movie. In the dark, rain coming down. The train came closer and then passed by the front of the SUV missing it by about two feet. After the train went by, Natalie ran towards the SUV and I flagged down the next car telling the guy in the car to call 911 and tell them that there was a SUV stuck on the tracks.

Then I ran towards Natalie a bit worried about what she might have encountered approaching the driver. As I ran closer, I heard the train signal sounding again as the gates again started to drop. At first, I thought that I might have tripped something accidentally setting off the gate, but then I saw the lights of the second train.

I ran over to Natalie who was next to the SUV talking to the driver who was on the phone with the emergency dispatcher. I heard Natalie say “We need to get you off the tracks in case another train comes through.” I said “Get out of the car, there is another train coming!”

The guy would not move.

Natalie started to yell at the guy “Get out of the truck now! There is a train coming! Get out. God dammit get out now!” The guy refused to get out of the truck and continued talking to the dispatcher. The train was getting close at this point and I was about to bail out, but as I moved away, Natalie ran towards the SUV yelling at the guy to get out of the way. As the guy slowly got out of the truck, the train came to a reluctant stop 30 feet from the front SUV. Three men got out of the train.

“You seem to have gotten yourself in a bit of a mess,” one of the men said to me. “Don’t look at me, it is that guy’s car.” We told them what had happened. As the third man approached, he said “Dispatch called 911 and they are sending the cops and a tow.” He relayed this information to the driver, and on his way back said “he said we could go through,” and the next thing I knew all three men were on the train and the train was slowly moving past the SUV.

As I was talking to the guys from the train, I saw the police lights heading our direction. But the cop passed us as the train was moving on, and could not see the SUV as it was obstructed by the train.

After the train passed, we stood there with the driver in the rain. He then turned to us and said “Do you think I can go?” We explained that no, we didn’t think that that was a good idea, and that he should stay put. He then stumbled towards his SUV and got into the driver seat and tried to shake his truck free.

All attempts to move the car only dug it in deeper, and the Ford Expedition slowly began to sink into the gravel straddling the tracks. The driver was trying to get away. The tires began to smoke and we made some distance on the SUV. That is when the police arrived.

We ran over to the cop who had put his spotlight on the guy in the truck, and told him that the guy was just crazy. As he approached the SUV, the driver pressed on the gas. The truck was parallel to the tracks, but the front driver side wheel was angled towards the track. The truck started to smoke badly, and Natalie and I took cover behind the cop car. The cop who was near the truck, started backing up. Something was catching fire, the SUV was losing it’s tire, there was smoke everywhere, and this guy was not giving up. Luckily, the Expedition did. The truck lost power, and as it did the guy got out. The cop made the arrest, and with much difficulty got him into the police car. We watched while standing in the cold rain.

The cop came over and said “I can’t remember being that scared before. If that front tire would have caught, he would have shot towards the street.” We told our story and gave our information. As the fire department, and half the police force showed up, we ran home. A couple of hours later we got a call. It was the cop. Twice the legal limit.