Posted on 11/09/2007 9:28:15 AM PST by a real Sheila
MINEOLA, N.Y — An off-duty police officer and her husband, a volunteer fire chief, rescued a disabled woman from her stalled car seconds before a train smashed into it, police said.
The 63-year-old driver apparently mistook the Long Island Rail Road tracks for a road, authorities said. Her car, which had a licensed plate that denotes a disabled driver, got stuck on the rails Thursday evening with a train fast approaching. She screamed that she couldn't get out of the car and needed help, said witness Jennifer Freiermuth, 28.
Randi LoCicero, off duty from her job at the New York Police Department, and Anthony LoCicero ran to the car as the crossing gates came down, Randi LoCicero said. As the train's horn blared, the couple yanked open the door and pulled out the driver, who needed crutches to walk, Randi LoCicero said.
"She was a little mad we didn't get her pocketbook, but you know, that's life," she said. The driver wasn't identified.
Instants later, a train plowed into the car, overturning it and
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“He had a hat.”
I hate when that happens.
Apparently the driver didn’t watch Ground Hog Day.
I think Alan Dershowitz did some digging when he referred to the joke in one of his books.
Apparently he tracked it down to an 1890’s cartoon in a Polish newspaper and it was an anti-semitic joke not a jewish joke.
But hey, adopting your enemy’s jokes and turning them around is an old trick.
We had a similar incident in our neighborhood.
The CSX was repairing the grade crossing and they had closed the road while they were digging out the area around the rails, leaving the rails standing on little skinny pillars of asphalt with three big holes in the ground.
We're walking our dogs and notice that already by the side of the road is a car that tried to drive across and tore its oil pan out . . . a bunch of guys had dragged it off the tracks.
Well, along comes this young guy in a Jeep - and he decides, hey, he's got 4 wheel drive, he's going to go over the crossing anyhow. We're frantically waving our arms for him to stop, he ignores us, drives around the barricade, and promptly takes a nosedive into the first hole, and gets his bumper jammed under the first rail.
THEN we hear the whistle . . . 2 crossings away . . .
I sprinted home (about half a block) and tore back with the Expedition and the logging chain. Back it up to the Jeep, meanwhile the guy is still sitting gripping the wheel like a deer in the headlights. My husband physically DRAGGED him out of the car as the locomotive came around the curve.
Fortunately CSX was operating under a "go slow" order while the crossing was being repaired, and the engineer was able to bring the train to a stop about 50 feet short of the Jeep, because I don't think we could have dragged the Jeep free in time. Engineer was spittin mad, we're all just shaking our heads, and my husband puts his hand on the boy's shoulder and says, "You be sure you go to church this Sunday, son."
This is a good example of “To protect and to serve”, even if the cop is off duty. I always wonder how giving someone a ticket for going 10mph over on an empty freeway is either protecting or serving.
I think I feel a country song coming on.
ROFLMAO!! You must have been listening to Henny Youngman on XM 151.
And it is a funny joke. My Dad told it to me, leaving out ethnicity I believe.
“You be sure you go to church this Sunday, son.”
and
“Be sure to change your pants when you get home, son.”
Lol.
I worry about some of the people who have licenses. God help us all!
Was she mentally disabled? Drove on to the tracks which she thought was a road? I don’t know about people sometimes. She sits there and screams instead of hauling her ass out of the car. I could have hauled myself out of the car if I had no legs. I guess some people just can’t or won’t take care of themselves.
Maybe she had once lived in New Orleans.
Good Lord - sometimes, you just gotta shake your head at other people’s stupidity.
Then I made a large sign and hung it on the barricade:
Well, she’s 63, disabled, and obviously confused enough that she mistook railroad tracks for a road.
The scary thing is that she was driving in the first place.
She was on crutches. I don’t think you can really negotiate railroad tracks with crutches.
Carolyn
I know a man and his wife, both in their 90’s who still drive. I hear this man has a lead foot too!
File under 'no good deed goes unpunished'.
Absolutely. Many Jewish people know how to laugh at themselves.
I used to work for some Jewish people and they would tell me, “Jewish people are just like everybody else . . . only more so.”
Good story!
Mineola was my favorite place to watch trains as a kid while visiting Grandpa. There is a section of track where it would be easy to make a turn and think you were on a street. The LIRR is no place to make that kind of mistake!
If a train is coming I could drag my body across 10 sets of tracks to avoid being hit.
If it didn’t get burned, they should be able to find all the pieces of it somewhere scattered around. Credit cards and other small plastic things are pretty resilient.
Her cell phone is probably a goner.
This happened to me once (getting stuck on rail road tracks). I was passing familiar tracks VERY late at night and they had done construction work earlier in the day, but had not put up any signs to say that part of the track and road were out. My car’s front wheels went over the front of the half track and the car was stuck fast. A cop (thank God) was passing on the other side at the exact same moment I got stuck — he was dispatched because of the dangerous conditions. “Don’t worry,” he told me as he helped me out of the car,” the last train came by just a few minutes ago. And just like in a movie...we heard a train whistle. Sure enough — a train coming further down the track toward my car. The cop got onto the radio, screaming into it for someone to alert the engineer some way! Meanwhile, cars were lining up on either side of the track and people were getting out yelling, “HIT IT, HIT IT, HIT IT” (thanks a lot, guys). Some brave soul actually put his jeep on the tracks with his headlights facing the train, while someone else tried to get a rope around my car to haul it off. The train stopped just a few feet from my car. The crowd’s reaction? “AWWWWWWW!” :-(
Interesting thing was, when I turned to thank the jeep owner for his bravery...both he and the jeep were no longer there...they HAD been just seconds before.
Hmmmm.....
I believe in angels, so perhaps the jeep driver was one.
“HIT IT, HIT IT, HIT IT!”
Amazing how BLOODTHIRSTY folks can become, isn’t it?
unfortunately, I’ve noticed that handicapped signs on cars are usually a sign to stay as far away as possible from said car. Often, handicapped now means elderly or extremely obese. No offense intended to truly handicapped people, I’m just offering observations.
I guess he probably didn't need the tell the kid to go home and change his underwear, too. ;o)
The stupidity of some folks is just breathtaking, isn't it?
I’m betting the train is gonna swerve first.
(((I believe in angels, so perhaps the jeep driver was one.)))
ME, too! AND if that cop hadn’t been crossing at the same time I was...well, I’d have just lost a car, but people on that train could have been seriously injured.
Thank you LORD Jesus, indeed!
That woman should NOT be driving anymore. They need to take her license away. What a fool!
HERO FIREMAN
*snort*
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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