HI everyone I was just catching up on my e-mails and. I was reading the news reports and an engineer was hit in the ear with an exploding fire cracker. The train was going though the city of Pewaukee it was a CP train the was traveling though the city when a bunch of kids threw the fire cracker though the window of the.The train and hit the engineer in the right ear. He was wearing ear plugs but it was to close to prevent damage to his ear. The train did contuine on to milwaukee where the engineer recived medical att. the railroad has said he is still off and is not sure if he can return to work. Because of the damage done to his ear. The police are looking for the kids so they can charge them with damage to a person and almost causing a derailment.
I would have stopped the train right then and there and hunted the kids down with a large spanner. Then stake em down to a stack of firecrackers and light it.
No wonder some of the train crews don’t like us “legit railfans”. Darn near impossible to know if the person is gonna’ throw a rock at ‘em or start foamin’ at the mouth.[:P]
Like so many others have said, “It only takes one to ruin it for everybody”…
LOL, [(-D] that’s what they should have done. [(-D][(-D]
Hope the engineer does okay, thoughts and prayers are with him.
Hope they find those kids and punish them, they deserve it.
(I would say if caught, they should put some firecrackers up “somewhere the sun don’t shine”,butt I probably shouldn’t.)
they better hunt them kids down.
my heart goes out to the engineer & his family. what they should of done was stopped the train get the engineer to medical services & the conductor could of got details on the kids & when the police was involved he could of gave them details & then cp could of sent a back up engineer to bring it to milwaukee. if i was in that prediciment thats what i would do.
ya pretty soon if this keeps happening they wont let us teens watch trains anymore
Here’s the story.
WAUKESHA COUNTY, Wis. – A freight train engineer was seriously injured when a couple of teenagers hurled firecrackers into a moving train, police said…
It happened around 2 p.m. Wednesday – the Fourth of July – as the train was passing through the Pewaukee Lake area.
The fireworks exploded about three to four inches from the engineer’s right ear, stunning him and damaging his hearing, police said.
The engineer was wearing earplugs, police said, but the blast was too close to prevent damage. The engineer told police that when he took the earplug out, it had debris lodged in it from the exploding firecracker.
“This is a crime. It’s a crime against another person. It’s a crime against the railroad,” Officer Steve Rohde of the Canadian Pacific Railway police said.
After the blast, the train continued on to Milwaukee where the engineer got medical help.
Police responded to the tracks, but the teens were gone by the time police arrived.
“Even though these juveniles were maybe only targeting the train and thought that wouldn’t cause any damage or injury, it did in this case,” Capt. Dan Meister of the City of Pewaukee Police Department said.
The incident could have caused a derailment in the residential area, police said.
“This was an intentional act,” Meister said. “This wasn’t a random act of some fireworks being set off in the area. The train was targeted.”
It’s unclear how much of the hearing loss will be permanent, but so far the engineer has been unable to return to work.
Pewaukee police are looking for the teens involved and have offered a reward through Crimestoppers, hoping someone saw the teens in action. Anyone with information is asked to call the Waukesha County Crimestoppers at 888-441-5505. Callers can remain anonymous.
Kevin
Trains don’t stop on a dime…Radio in the report of the occurence, it gets to the authorities much quicker.
From one railroad family to another, our very best wishes are extended to this engineer and his family for a sppedy and full recovery. A job well done!
It’s actually a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking on my part and others, when it comes to our trying to think what we woud have done under those circumstances. CP Rail owes this man a great amount of gratitude.
It does’t say just how long his train was, but I’m sure it wasn’t a case of just shoving it in the clear and seeking medical attention. The sad part of this is, if the engineer had put this train in emergency and called for assistance, those same officers would be trying to lock him up for blocking their grade crossings. I’m not saying this in a derogatory manner, it would their job to keep these crossings clear, but trying to convince a mile long freight train to move without an engineere, just doesn’t get done. I would assume that continuing on to his home terminal was his choice, and probably the better of all alternatives.
While that is bad there is worst…As a brakeman I have dodge rocks,bricks,large chunks of cinder block,short pieces of 2x4s,short steel rods,angle iron and gun shots on 2 occasions…
We had a old refrigerator dropped from a overpass once…It landed in front of the train and thankfully the SW1 push it aside.
Not to belittle what happened here, but how could the train have possibly derailed?
Poor train handling. If the enginner had lost his consintration, or something else, he can have derailed the train. Thats usually what is first to be blamed for a derailment any way. It derailed due to poor train handling.
“Anything you can do, I can do better”…Put a nice big firecracker in each of the kids’ ears and light 'em.
It’s too bad they couldn’t catch the jerks. Hopeully the railroad will not lay-off the engineer or anything, and get him back into the engineers seat as soon as he’s better.
Phil
Well, it said the engineer was stunned. If it was long enough followed by disorientation afterwards, who knows? Miss a signal? Take a curve too fast? Not see that on the track(s)?
I doubt they can legally lay him off, and I bet hes done working.
Well, depending on how badly his hearing is messed up depends on the course of action. I am sure the railroad would not want to lay him off. But, if his hearing is not good enough and can not be fixed by say a hearing aid, then he can not go back to operating a locomotive, let alone working the ground. Like he would want to work the ground any way. I am sure the railroad will give him a buy out if they can not allow him to come back to work. If not they may let him take early retirement. You never know that kinds of action the railroad has up there sleeve.
If the culprits did not know anything about physics, chemistry, and biology they are stupid.
If the culprits do know all about physics, chemistry, and biology they are cruel and malicious.
Either way, keep them away from the rest of us for a while until their brains and hearts can be improved.
Andrew
Was there a conducter or other crewman aboard the locomotive? They could have stopped the train.
Do you really want to go to jail for a really long time for assault of a minor(s)? That is the reality of the situation.
Stopping the train is the last thing you really want to do. Don’t you think they might have more firecrackers to throw? Get a good description of the clothing, hair, shoes, age and other details to report to the police and special agents and keep moving the injured toward medical attention.