[V8] Vintage American Iron vs just about anything

[Mike Arman]

When I lived in Miami (1970 or so), I used to drive south on I-95 to work, 
and every day an Amtrak passenger train would meet me going north - he was 
usually going 70 to 80 mph at that point.

One fine day, I saw the train but it was stopped - and there was no glass 
in the windshield or the headlight of the engine, and the ground was 
covered in snow . . . in Miami?

Seems a tractor trailer filled with baled newsprint got stuck on the 
crossing at 183rd street (I think) and the train hit it broadside.Fast, 
too. Truck driver saw the train coming and ran away and hid (later 
arrested), and the train simply exploded the truck, and left a three mile 
long trail of bits of aluminum and scrap paper, which looked like snow. No 
fatalities, no serious injuries, unbelievable mess.


Some years later, I saw the aftermath of a big Chevvy dually with a trailer 
and a Huey helicopter on it meeting the same fate, the same way. Again, 
stuck on a railroad track, here comes the train and simply wiped them out. 
Looked like someone opened a raw egg by dropping an anvil on it - from 500 
feet. They needed a whisk broom to pick up the pieces of the chopper. The 
trailer was demolished, and the dually got rolled end over end for half a 
mile. Not too much left of it, either. Again, driver got out and ran away.

Moral - don't EVER race a train to a grade crossing. Most automobiles won't 
even scratch the paint on the locomotive.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman
(Audi V8 . . . it isn't just a car, it's an ADVENTURE!)