On Saturday evening, Aug. 23, just before 10 p.m., my wife, daughter-in-law and our two grandchildren were passengers in our son Tom’s minivan as he drove north on South Broadway. As we neared Front Street and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, red lights started flashing and the gates closed. Our vehicle was the first to stop awaiting an approaching southbound train.

Suddenly from the north we heard sirens and saw flashing lights from four squad cars and an ambulance that were southbound on South Broadway. As they neared the tracks they slowed down. The trailing three vehicles stopped. But — can you believe? — the first two squad cars went around the gates and continued south. The train missed hitting the second car by only 10 seconds. Had the locomotive struck it, it would have been thrown into our car, causing untold injuries, deaths and damage.

While the officers in these cars were responding to an emergency somewhere, I ask, how could they take such a chance as they did to save one or two minutes in reaching their destination? Incidentally, I’m glad I wasn’t the railroad engineer.

 

Mark Jones

Albert Lea