CanWest News Service TimeColonist.com Thursday, April 26, 2007
VANCOUVER - A Global TV cameraman filming the aftermath of a fatal Canadian Pacific Railways train wreck near Trail, B.C., became an inadvertent hero Wednesday when he prevented a little boy from going over a cliff in his mother's minivan.
Global TV reporter Chris Gailus and cameraman Tony Clark were doing a story for about the derailment in which the engineer died, when Gailus saw the van, with the little boy its front seat, starting to roll towards the cliff.
The boy's mother had brought the boy and his twin brother to look at the wreck. Gailus reckons they were on their way home when the mother, after putting one boy in the van, stopped with the other to talk to Gailus. That's when the van started to roll.
"As she was talking to me, one of the boys jumped into the driver's seat of the van and somehow slipped it into gear," Gailus said.
"I was running alongside it, but I had to bail out because the van was going so fast. I fell, and just at that moment Tony grabbed the steering wheel and wrenched it over to the left so that the van hit a wooden piling and stopped. If he hadn't done that, it would have gone over the embankment."
Neither Gailus nor Clark ever learned the names of the boy or his family; there wasn't time and everyone was in a state of shock.
This doesn't surprise me, I really question the intellect of someone who would take her kids to rubberneck at a fatal accident. Some kinda strange view of entertainment.
This doesn't surprise me, I really question the intellect of someone who would take her kids to rubberneck at a fatal accident. Some kinda strange view of entertainment.
Not unlike the geniuses crews trying to clean up Stanley Park were tripping over and having to shoo out from right under the trees they were working on.... Unbelievable. Just remember, though, boys and girls, that while you have to get a license to fish, drive, etc., etc., any moron can breed at will with anyone willing.
Not sure why the darts are being thrown at the mother for taking her kids to the scene of a massive train derailment... TV crews shoot these things and plaster all over the TV screens because people want to see them. So what's so awful about 'rubbernecking' a massive train crash as it's part of local history. I know someone died and that might make it seem macabre.
The dangerous situation was having a small child in the vehicle unsupervised when it was easy for him to start the vehicle rolling. Could happen in a driveway. This location has nothing to do with the story.
Another classic PSR thread. Participants ripping the woman. Sure, what she did was a bit dumb, but how about we focus on Tony and Chris saving the kids.?
Oh yeah, because we'd have to focus on the positive part of the story. That'd be too tough.
I agree with it all. Kudos to the crew on scene for taking action. But take it from me, you'd be shocked and amazed at what people will do to "get a look".
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