Lewis Ableidinger (photographer) “My Experience” Scariest Moment

Lewis Ableidinger North Dakota based photographer, who is known for his eerie and desolate images. Today he shares with us his scariest moment and what it's taught him.

My full time job is a locomotive engineer for a railroad. It’s not unusual to have close calls with people that want to beat the train at a railroad crossing, sometimes they’re not so lucky. My scariest and worst experience was a few years ago when a tractor mowing ditches failed to look for trains at a railroad crossing and our train struck the tractor at 60 mph.

The worst part is you can see what’s about to happen and can’t do anything to stop it. The fuel tank burst and covered everything, the tractor and front of the locomotive, in flames. We finally came to a stop with the burning tractor still stuck on the front of the locomotive. I then had to get as close to this burning tractor as I could to determine if the operator was trapped inside.

He was not, having been ejected at the point of impact nearly ¾ of a mile from where we came to a stop. Unfortunately he didn’t make it. A tragedy such as this makes me more appreciative of the life you have because it can be all gone in a matter of seconds.