A 27 year-old Vermont man is lucky to be alive after flipping his pickup truck onto the railroad tracks off of State Route 7 in Pownal early Friday – but also kind of unlucky in a way because it happened outside of a very specific window of time that would’ve made him a legend for all of mankind.
Local paper the Bennington Banner reports that Joshua Rand crawled out of the vehicle after it came to a halt on the tracks running parallel to the road in the area, sustaining only minor injuries in the accident. A state police press release fills in the rest: “A southbound train was unable to be contacted by the railroad dispatch. The train failed to stop in time and collided with the unoccupied vehicle. No one was injured as a result of this crash.” So the timing worked out for Joshua.
What would’ve worked so much better is if he had flipped his truck WHILE the train was passing and it landed in an empty open-top car. Seriously how fucking awesome would that have been? Yeah it would be kind of awkward to call 911 and explain what happened. Worse would be if he couldn’t get through and then had to wait until the train stopped God knows where it was headed. Could’ve been in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Still would’ve been worth it just for the story he could tell.
Definitely better than landing on the tracks with the train 200 ft away. That would’ve sucked.