Page 145 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

The first thing that I remember seeing after getting out of the car was a picture that looked like it came
out of a movie. There was a raging fire and a lot of smoke. The passenger cars were scattered around
like small toys. I could see trees in the background behind the fire, but this was the only land I could see..
With the flames shooting fifty to seventy-five feet in the air, I knew there was no way we could reach
land on that side. We treaded water for several minutes before we decided what to do. The current was
taking us down stream. We saw electrical lines in the water, so we began swimming back to the
wreckage. All this time, 1 was holding my mom above the water, and my wife was struggling to keep
herself from drowning. We managed to get to the rear portion of our car that was still above the water.
Al that time there was about thirty square feet of the roof above the water. The diesel fuel was thick in
the water and it made the steel car slippery. We were unable to get on top of the car. There was a suction
around the car that pulled my wife under the water. Her head was about two feet under the water when
she managed to grab my arm and I pulled her backup. I looked at her and told her, "You have to make it
on your own, I can't help you, I have to help my mom". She realized that I was right and it made her
fight even
harder.

I was able to find a piece of a cross lie for us to float on. This was the first time that we felt any sense of
security and it wasn't much. We floated back downstream and we were able to fight the current to get
over to a bridge trestle. We were under the bridge with a train car hanging precariously over our heads
ready to fall at any time. We were lucky to find a metal bar sticking out of the concrete pillar just above
the surface of the water. Il was there that we struggled to hold on and wait. The smoke was making it
hard to breathe, and we were hanging on to the bridge with one hand and our cross-tie with the other. I
heard a girl yell for help and I could tell that she had exhausted all of her energy and was about to
drown. I was able to swim over to her and give her a piece of a cross tie to float on. 1 helped her back to
where we were holding on to the bridge and she waited with us.

A little time passed before a passenger that had not gone into the water came down to the bank with a
flashlight. It was such a relief for us to see where there was land for us to swim to. The current was
swift, but all four of us fought and fought until we finally made it to land. There was an area about ten
feet wide at the bank of the river where there were grassy weeds six to eight feet tall. With the water
depth still over our heads 1 was afraid that there would be snakes in there or we might get tangled up in
the weeds.

When we reached the bank, some of the passengers from the rear of the train helped us out of the water.
We had been in the water for twenty to thirty minutes, and we were extremely tired. It took hours for
help to arrive to take us back to Mobile but the time went by very fast. We were fortunate to be alive and
that is all that really mattered. We knew that people had died all around us.

Finally, a train from Mobile with rescue workers arrived, we walked bare-footed on the railroad rock to
the train cars. The train had to back up in reverse all the way to Mobile across other bridges. When we
reached Mobile there were hundreds of cars and trucks with their red and blue lights flashing. As we got
off the train and walked to a bus that was waiting to take us to the hospital, I saw the first boat load of
bodies being unloaded. That had a strong impact on me.

We boarded the bus and rushed under police escort to the hospital. They admitted my wife due to
abdominal bruises and a low white blood cell count. We were a little battered up and my wife had some
strained muscles but we were a lot more fortunate than nearly all of the people in our car. People as
close as across the aisle drowned that morning. I don't know how many people died in our car but, after
the accident, there were only two or three people around us.

The above story was sent to the NTSB shortly after the accident per their request. We later learned that
35 people died in our train car and 47 in total.

137

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982