"Non Official" rescuer dies NV derailment injuries

[Karl1459]

This gentelman was on scene about 8 minutes after the crash, and assisted with rescues. Suffered a leg injury and died of a blood clot. My thanks and sympathies.

News article

 

[Devil's Advocate]

“He was the second truck (in the convoy), 8 minutes behind the truck that hit the train,” Al Breen said of his brother's account, asking him how a big rig could hit a train. “He told me he didn't know because you could see the train for miles.”

If you're busy yapping away at your phone then there is no limit to what you can miss. Truckers don't tend to drive slow as they want to get in as many trips as they can before the end of business. If the lead truck was a full eight minutes ahead of the second truck my guess is that he was speeding. I hope they throw the book at the John Davis Trucking Co.

“With that much going on, he may have blended in with the Amtrak passengers,” Rogne surmised. “Knowing him, he was right in the middle of it.”

If I was with the trucking company that had caused all these injuries and deaths I'd probably have tried my best to blend in as well.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

"He was the second truck (in the convoy), 8 minutes behind the truck that hit the train," Al Breen said of his brother's account, asking him how a big rig could hit a train. "He told me he didn't know because you could see the train for miles."

If you're busy yapping away at your phone then there is no limit to what you can miss. Truckers don't tend to drive slow as they want to get in as many trips as they can before the end of business. If the lead truck was a full eight minutes ahead of the second truck my guess is that he was speeding. I hope they throw the book at the John Davis Trucking Co.

"With that much going on, he may have blended in with the Amtrak passengers," Rogne surmised. "Knowing him, he was right in the middle of it."

If I was with the trucking company that had caused all these injuries and deaths I'd probably have tried my best to blend in as well.

That's a heartless thing to say about someone who was helping others. His coworkers actions do NOT reflect on him. May his family take solace in knowing he sacrificed his life for others.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That's a heartless thing to say about someone who was helping others. His coworkers actions do NOT reflect on him. May his family take solace in knowing he sacrificed his life for others.

That wasn't meant to be a comment on the man's actions or motives so much as the potential for mob justice. That's not to say the train's occupants were on any sort of witch hunt, just that I would have been wary of alerting them to any connections I may have had with the driver who caused such death and tragedy in their midst. There was a terrible incident in Austin in the last year or two where a car struck a child in a car park and when one of the passengers got out to help the child he was beaten to death by a group of suddenly enraged strangers. Incidents like this happen all over the globe and there is precious little that anyone can do about it before it's too late.

 

[George B]

That isn’t heartless at all. In fact, I will say the same thing.....If I was with the trucking company that had caused all those injuries and deaths I'd probably have tried my best to blend in as well. If I worked for that company I would be pretty ashamed that my employer hired someone with the record that the accident driver had. Texas Sunset’s comment had nothing to do with accusing the driver of the second truck for causing the accident, or downplaying his assistance after the collision.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Texas Sunset, I apologize for misinterpreting your comment.

 

[PaulM]

That isn’t heartless at all. In fact, I will say the same thing.....If I was with the trucking company that had caused all those injuries and deaths I'd probably have tried my best to blend in as well. If I worked for that company I would be pretty ashamed that my employer hired someone with the record that the accident driver had. Texas Sunset’s comment had nothing to do with accusing the driver of the second truck for causing the accident, or downplaying his assistance after the collision.

If not heartless, would you go along with weird? I took the fire chief's surmising at face value. Given the circumstances, I'll bet the odds of the trucking company's employment polices entering dead man mind at the time were extremely low.

 

[George B]

Given the circumstances, I'll bet the odds of the trucking company's employment polices entering dead man mind at the time were extremely low.

I wish I knew what that sentence meant. Which dead man? What are you trying to say?

Texas Sunset hit it right on the head……..people, especially distraught family members, can do very strange things at horrific accidents like this. Unfairly assaulting someone they think is at fault is not uncommon. I’m all for praising the man for helping out, but I really doubt he was walking around going “I’m from the trucking company! I’m here to help!” He was just being a brave human being, helping out other human beings.

 

[PaulM]

Given the circumstances, I'll bet the odds of the trucking company's employment polices entering dead man mind at the time were extremely low.

I wish I knew what that sentence meant. Which dead man? What are you trying to say?

Texas Sunset hit it right on the head……..people, especially distraught family members, can do very strange things at horrific accidents like this. Unfairly assaulting someone they think is at fault is not uncommon. I’m all for praising the man for helping out, but I really doubt he was walking around going “ ...

Sorry for being obtuse.

Which dead man? The one who died while trying to help out at the scene of the accident, the one whom the article was about.

What are you trying to say? That although I also "doubt that he was walking around going “I’m from the trucking company! ", I seriously doubt the trucking company's hiring polices that you referred to entered his mind at that time.

As far as being assaulted by distraught family members, maybe it is the statistician in me that wonders how frequently this occurs. It sounds anecdotal to me. In any event, I doubt that this type of risk entered his mind at that time.

The hiring policy comment sounds to me like something that would come up in a discussion about the cause of the accident and where to place blame. The unfair assault idea sounds like watching too much television (although I would venture a guess that you don't watch much TV). Texas Sunset's comments often seem to come from a vivid imagination; but you usually enlighten AU members with your technical and factual knowledge. Sorry, I just think the thread took a weird turn.

As to Sunset's comment, as I said, I don't think it was heartless, merely a cute, clever retort, not something that could lead to intelligent discussion.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Texas Sunset, I apologize for misinterpreting your comment.

I appreciate your desire to make amends but there is no need to apologize. You spoke out for what you felt is right and that prompted me to clarify further. You probably expected a warm reception to an article like this and when you saw a fairly glib response you rather naturally assumed it must be an attack. I did not intend for it to be an attack but neither am I particularly moved by this story either. I'm generally not as harsh as some folks on this forum when it comes to things like self-destructive accidents and suicides that don't physically harm others. I don't agree with those who can easily label a total stranger an idiot. However, I can also be rather skeptical of what I see as an innate tendency toward the extremes of demonizing and hero worship among our press. One thing that concerned me about this article was that there appeared to be no independent corroboration of the claims made. I have no reason to believe the source of the story, which was apparently Robert Breen himself, or his friends and family who relayed the story had any reason to lie. However, it still would have been a much better story if they could have found some witnesses to his deeds.

My inherent skepticism has been shaped by many influences but the most important lesson on "heroism" was the first one I ever learned. This lesson occurred one summer when I was at a boyscout camp. For the simple and obvious act of grabbing a canoe and paddling out to help some boys get out of river where there was a strong enough current to prevent an easy escape I and another boy were hailed as "heroes." Although I didn't initiate or promote any of it I must admit that I enjoyed the extra attention this misunderstanding brought me. The only problem was that there was nothing truly heroic about any of it. My life was in no serious danger and if we hadn't helped these other boys I'm sure someone else would have. We were at a summer camp for Pete's sake, not plying some uncharted amazonian tributary. Given enough time they probably would have figured out a solution on their own in true scout fashion. All I did was what any reasonably responsible person would have done in my place, scout or not. But seeing how quickly some people gravitated toward this imaginary hero status planted a seed of skepticism that has lived with me ever since.

Which dead man? The one who died while trying to help out at the scene of the accident, the one whom the article was about.

To clarify further, Robert Breen died on August 3rd, a little over a month after the June 24th collision between an errant commercial truck and an Amtrak passenger train. And yes, my evidence and my experiences are mostly anecdotal, but that doesn't change the very real truth that mobs can be surprisingly dangerous when emotions are running high and that being a witness to death and injury toward innocent people is just the sort of thing that tends to push emotions over the tipping point.

 

[George B]

As far as being assaulted by distraught family members, maybe it is the statistician in me that wonders how frequently this occurs. It sounds anecdotal to me. In any event, I doubt that this type of risk entered his mind at that time.

The unfair assault idea sounds like watching too much television (although I would venture a guess that you don't watch much TV).

Unfortunately, no, this isn’t anecdotal. Crash scenes large or small are awful places to have to be. You see the best and worst in people under such situations. The worst is not worth discussing. Let’s just leave it at that.

 

[George B]

In general, this has all been blown way out of proportion. But, there is nothing wrong with what Texas Sunset said, and I found it strange that anybody would call him heartless just for making an interesting observation.

And, since he brought it up, I, too, get a strange feeling from the article like people quoted in it are trying too hard to sell me on the fact that this guy is a hero. I don’t know if he was or not, but at least you can say the guy was helping others. I hope I am wrong, but I smell an attempt to stave off the family’s involvement in the lawsuits by highlighting his helping of the injured, as well as possibly start their own lawsuit to get money. I really, really hope that is not the case here.

 

[PaulM]

Texas Sunset, I apologize for misinterpreting your comment.

I appreciate your desire to make amends but there is no need to apologize. You spoke out for what you felt is right and that prompted me to clarify further. You probably expected a warm reception to an article like this and when you saw a fairly glib response you rather naturally assumed it must be an attack. I did not intend for it to be an attack but neither am I particularly moved by this story either. I'm generally not as harsh as some folks on this forum when it comes to things like self-destructive accidents and suicides that don't physically harm others. I don't agree with those who can easily label a total stranger an idiot. However, I can also be rather skeptical of what I see as an innate tendency toward the extremes of demonizing and hero worship among our press. One thing that concerned me about this article was that there appeared to be no independent corroboration of the claims made. I have no reason to believe the source of the story, which was apparently Robert Breen himself, or his friends and family who relayed the story had any reason to lie. However, it still would have been a much better story if they could have found some witnesses to his deeds.

My inherent skepticism has been shaped by many influences but the most important lesson on "heroism" was the first one I ever learned. This lesson occurred one summer when I was at a boyscout camp. For the simple and obvious act of grabbing a canoe and paddling out to help some boys get out of river where there was a strong enough current to prevent an easy escape I and another boy were hailed as "heroes." Although I didn't initiate or promote any of it I must admit that I enjoyed the extra attention this misunderstanding brought me. The only problem was that there was nothing truly heroic about any of it. My life was in no serious danger and if we hadn't helped these other boys I'm sure someone else would have. We were at a summer camp for Pete's sake, not plying some uncharted amazonian tributary. Given enough time they probably would have figured out a solution on their own in true scout fashion. All I did was what any reasonably responsible person would have done in my place, scout or not. But seeing how quickly some people gravitated toward this imaginary hero status planted a seed of skepticism that has lived with me ever since.

It would be difficult to misinterpret this well thought out post; but not so your original. You called it "glib", I labeled it clever and cute.

 

[VentureForth]

I wonder if we'll ever see a witness statement from him or if he has provided any sort of testimonial. He can defend his trucking company and against his co-worker if his co-worker was definitely in the wrong.

My heart goes out to this hero who was not involved with the accident in anyway other than to be associated with the other driver. He [apparently] was a selfless rescuer.

Sounds like his time was in the cards already with two cancerous tumors. My sympathies, thought, and prayers to the family of this humble man.