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Where do I start? For those of you who have not heard through the grapevine, last night we (Scott, Chris and I) almost got hit by a Metra train in Palatine. We were on our way to see YesMen, our favorite local rock band, play a show at Durtie Nellies. The snow was not a deterrent, not after my first 12-hour workday since the start of the school year. So, we ventured on into the snow at an appropriately slow pace. It was just like any of the many snowy drives I have made out to Palatine in the last three years. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

After turning onto Smith Street from Palatine Road, we were almost there. Then the arms came down in front of the railroad tracks. We waited for the eastbound passenger train to make its stop and move on. As the arms came up, traffic started moving again. Just as I passed under the arm on my side of the road, the lights started flashing and the arms started lowering again. Remembering that it’s not the smartest thing to try to race across the tracks to beat a train, and with the snow it was probably an even dumber idea, I tried to back the car away from the tracks.

Looking to see on which tracks and from which direction the train was, I saw that it was westbound (from the right side of the street – the passenger side of the car, where Chris was!) and it was on the near set of tracks. It didn’t look like I was far enough back to avoid getting hit by the train! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. For a second that seemed like an eternity, I was frozen, thinking, staring at all of the lights, just barely hearing the blaring horn from the train.

Scott was telling Chris to get out of the car. That was probably the sanest bit of advice that was being said. In the sudden confusion of the whole situation, Chris managed to open the door, but couldn’t get out of her seat belt. She tried to get out, but couldn’t. At that point, all I could think of was that I was about to get two of my best friends killed. It was so surreal. My mind went into some sort of hyper drive – I put the car back into Drive and turned the wheel to the left and hit the gas, hoping that the traction control would let me move.

The car swung around with the passenger door hanging open. I wasn’t sure if it jutted out over the tracks, but it was the least of my worries. All I could think about was that if we were going to get hit by that train, I was going to do my best to minimize the angle of impact, and hopefully get the car cleared of the tracks. I would not get my friends killed. That is not going to happen while I was behind the wheel.

In the rear view mirror, I saw the train sweep behind the car as we cleared the other side of the road and ended up in the snow and ditch next to the where the road and the tracks met. The train made its stop, dropping off its passengers, and it continued to its next stop. I don’t even know if any of the passengers realized just how close they came to being involved in a “train meets car” collision.

With the relief of the ordeal being behind us (literally), I tried to get the car moving and back down Smith Street. It wasn’t happening. The car was stuck in the snow. While Scott went to get help from Durty Nellies, a Palatine Police officer drove up to make sure we were OK. Another officer pulled up soon thereafter. About a half hour later, with the help of the two officers, Scott, Patrick (from the YesMen) and a concerned bystander, we were able to get the car unstuck. With that, we decided that home was our new destination. In another half hour, we were there.

I was able to thank the first officer on the scene before we left, but I never got his name. I’ll have to give the department a call and thank both of the officers personally for their help. I also want to thank Patrick and the guy who pulled over to help us get the car going again. And a huge thank you goes to Scott for his help. Thanks to everyone that called to make sure we’re OK.

Lastly, I want to apologize to both Scott and Chris for getting us into that situation in the first place. This experience is one that I still can’t believe happened to us. As I was saying to Brad on the phone last night, it may be a while before I’ll be able to come to terms (for lack of a better term, no pun intended) with all of this. I’m just glad that we all survived to tell the tale of the night we almost died.*

* If that sounds a bit insensitive, that’s because that’s how I generally deal with traumatic experiences. And believe me, this was as traumatic as it gets without anyone dying.