Flying suitcases

Flying suitcases.

Like millions of others, I’ve taken Amtrak between Washington and New York and I was glued to CNN yesterday because I guess I feel that if you can learn enough about what happens in an accident like that, you can take some control if it happens to you.

Lesson number one &#8212 be prepared for chaos.

“This huge red suitcase just came flying at me and hit my chest” one crash victim told the press. “I think I have fractured ribs.”

Lesson number two &#8212 hope that the adrenalin will help you live up to the example set by Max Helfman.
“There was a door, open about 8 inches, so my first priority, obviously, was to get my mom safe,” Helfman told reporters. “I just did what I could to get people out of that car.”

“I think I started to panic a little bit,” Helfman’s mom said. “But my son just kept calling my name and he found me, he got me out.”

It was 10 minutes before the uniformed help arrived &#8212 but the initial first responders, like Max Helfman, were already there.
Now comes the investigation, but I’m going to make a prediction. Congress is finally going to be shamed into installing the safety systems that could have prevented this. Because some of these passengers are ticked off.

“The fact that this was preventable, that seven people who waited in the same exact line that I did yesterday at Union Station in Washington DC lost their lives, is just enraging,” Andrew Brenner told the press.

There are now 200 plus people, like Brenner, who are ready to testify before Congress that if they can throw untold billions at quote “Protecting the Homeland” from terrorists who, god forbid, might sabotage our railroads, they can throw a few more million at upgrading those railroads &#8212 before they sabotage themselves.