Texting driver assaults freight train
There’s not much worse than drinking and driving; however, drinking, driving, texting and plowing into freight trains fall into that category of atrocities. Robert Gillespie, elected to spend his evening doing just that in Eugene, Oregon late Tuesday night.
Though everyone is entitled to a little celebration at birthdays, Gillespie’s experience was quite unique. At 2:00 a.m, Gillespie was speeding along a little 35 mph road, drunk, a day after his 38th birthday. Unfortunately in his post-birthday glee, he elected to participate in a few choice activities that, mixed, apparently resulted in driving headlong into the freight train, according to WRAL News.
When police arrived, they found Gillespie trapped in his automobile, chatting away. While removing him from his wrecked vehicle, they found out exactly why he chose to plow into the Union Pacific freight train at such an unceremonious hour.
Fortunately, none of the workers on the train were injured; Gillespie escaped alive, but was charged with drunk and careless driving.
An officer on the scene said Gillespie recognized he was about to hit the train, but too late; he braked but failed to stop the vehicle.
A spokeswoman for the police, Kerry Delf, said, “There are all kinds of ways to get distracted these days…we don’t recommend any of them while you’re driving.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited to omit certain discrepencies a helpful reader pointed out. Thanks, reader.
Related Posts:
October 18th, 2007
Triston,
Thank you for changing some of the inaccuracies in your story. However, the ones I mentioned were not ALL of the inaccuracies. For example, he was not charged with reckless driving (a criminal misdemeanor), but careless driving (a traffic violation). I was hoping that you would do your homework, check your facts, and correct the inaccuracies in your story.
October 18th, 2007
Freight Train – 1
Other Vehicle – 0