There are bullet trains and there are stray bullets, but there are no stray trains. That is, we often feel that stories about trains “slamming into” vehicles and “slicing vehicles in half” put a touch too much blame on the trains, as if locomotives were — like bank robbers and car thieves on the run — ravaging city streets and highways akin to GTA missions. Due to the nature of the tracks, someone’s got to get in front of the train. That doesn’t stop us from feeling bad for everyone involved in a train-vehicle collision, though, because everyone loses, sometimes even those far from the scene. That’s what happened in this case, when Amazon delivery driver Alexander Evans accidentally ended up on the tracks crossing a rural road just as an Amtrak train was hustling by.
The accident happened in November 2021, west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Local news reports showed footage of the aftermath and spoke to Evans, who had posted photos on his Facebook page. It seems TMZ just acquired footage from inside the van. It looks like someone recorded a replay of video from the Amazon monitoring system, judging by the green box hovering around Evans’ torso and movement of the frame.
But talk about, “It all happened in a second” — at 0:18 in the video above, Evans sees the train, the train hits the van, the back of the van is gone. The incredible part is that Alexander survived without injury, just some soreness, even though the locomotive ripped off took three-quarters of the Ram ProMaster behind the cabin, including the bulkhead. News reports said no one on the train was injured, either.
How did it happen? Evans said he looked, but didn’t see train, and because he’s deaf in his left ear, he didn’t hear the train’s horn. In 2021, Evans drew a map of his route on a satellite image for news station WISN, showing what looks like a really long driveway running next to the tracks for a bit, then meeting the road almost where the tracks cross. In true rural fashion, there are no warning signals at the crossing; locals probably know to take their time and give each direction a good, long look. Or three. The video shows Evans glance to the left a couple of times, but it’s nothing like the kind of focus one would expect at an unmarked crossing, especially if one can’t hear too well.
He said when he realized the train was coming, he hit the gas, which could have saved his life and been the best present he’s ever had: He told WISN the accident happened on his 33rd birthday. What a way to celebrate being alive, eh?
And what kind of message did Amazon use to update the intended recipients of all those packages?
