Cars and Trains aren't friends

My dad has learned to text, which is nice. He is a conductor for the railroad and works wonky hours. This way, I can just text him when I want to say hi and he can call me when he is available.
But when I learned that my dad has now figured out how to text pictures, I was pretty surprised. Go dad!

I was not all that surprised when the picture he sent turned out to be a car that they had hit that day.
I called dad and asked him what was going on, making sure he was ok (not that i thought he was hurt but I can't imagine being on the train and just watching as you hit someone! there is nothing at all you can do about it. Trains don't stop on dimes.)
He said the guy either didn't see them or whatever and they hit him and he flew out the back window. Dad was pretty sure they had killed him, but when he walked back to the car, the guy was sitting up and looking around. By some miracle, he is just fine.
WOW.

So, kids, BUCKLE up for goodness sakes - and don't play on the tracks.You might wonder, since my dad had to walk back to this accident and check it out, if he has killed people (or I really should say the train...) and had to see the results. Unfortunately, yes, he has been on the train at times of terrible, traumatic accidents. He is given time off, paid, and free counseling for as long as he needs it each time that happens. This hasn't happened since I was in the 2nd grade, which I am thankful for. Every time i read in the news about someone getting hit by a train, I cringe. My first though (selfishly) is that I hope my dad wasn't on that train. My very next thought if for the person or their family.

I didn't really intend to make this a public service announcement, but for goodness sakes, let's not try and "beat the train." It's fast, it's huge, and they absolutely cannot stop if you are on the tracks.