WALTON, Ky. -- The thought of being hit by a train is terrifying enough, but two collisions within minutes of each other? That's just cruel.
Timothy McCullough, 27, of Hebron, Kentucky, is counting his blessings after that very scenario played out late Monday night and he survived without life-threatening injuries.
Around 10:40 p.m., McCullough was driving a 2015 Jeep SUV westbound on Maher Road. Even though he braked, icy conditions on the roadway caused him to slide into a moving northbound Norfolk Southern train, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office.
“It’s very, very indescribable. I mean -- it was scary, I ain't going to lie," McCullough said Tuesday night. "Every time the train hit it ... it jerked the car. I thought I was going to get drug further (sic) down the tracks."
Three minutes after the collision, first responders Lt. Dean Pattison and Deputy Mike Moore arrived to find McCullough still in the Jeep on the tracks; he was complaining of back and chest pains, according to police reports.
As responders tended to McCullough's injuries, they were told of another northbound train heading toward the intersection. Despite instructions from police dispatch to halt, the second northbound train crashed into the remains of McCullough's Jeep six minutes after the first collision.
In those three short minutes between arriving on the scene and the second collision, Pattison and Moore removed McCullough from his Jeep and carried him to the bed of a nearby pickup truck where arriving EMS treated him before he was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
"The fact that I slammed into a train -- not just a vehicle, I mean a train -- and I survived? I mean, it's amazing," he said.
McCullough suffered a punctured lung; he was resting at home Tuesday night. He said he plans to meet with the deputies Wednesday, and he'd like to talk with the person who first saw the crash and called 911.
