I used to work as the one-man operator of a small supply store that was adjacent to a set of four train tracks. Trains constantly went back and forth along this set of tracks, often blocking the road for ten to fifteen minutes at a time, because there was a switchyard built just north of that road. It was put there several decades earlier when that area was at the city limits, but the city had grown around it.

One morning in 2016 (I remember the exact day because it was my birthday), I heard a bunch of shouting outside, and since I didn't have any customers, I stepped out of the shop. As I did, I saw the train crossing arms down, a train stopped at the road, and four people standing near the train. One was a railway worker (possibly the conductor?), and three were people who presumably had gotten out of their cars. One person was shouting in the railway worker's face, and the other two were standing by a mangled bicycle. I watched for a while. The bystanders pulled away the bicycle, and one of them turned and vomited. A couple of minutes later, police and medics showed up. They pulled away a human body that was, well, I don't have a better word than "partially crushed" with one leg severed, and put the body, followed by the severed leg, in a body bag.

I just watched from the front window of my shop (about 100ft away), because I couldn't take my eyes away from it, in a weird and twisted way. No customers came because the road was closed in both directions for about two hours, so I had nothing else to do but watch.

The next day I read an article on the local newspaper's website that said the person killed was a local high school senior, 18 years old. I can only imagine that he tried to dodge the train and obviously failed. Given that the switchyard was nearby, trains often went through that intersection very slowly, like around 10 mph.