Tragedy in Midland this week with the Hunt for Heros Parade, help if you can

[shane]

I am sure many of you saw on the news this weekend about the tragic accident in my hometown this past week, I want to reach out to everyone one that is able to help the families of the victims by donating to http://www.showofsupport.org

 

For those that have not heard, basically as the parade was crossing the tracks, one of the semi's carrying Veterans and their families was struck by a train. Investigations are in progress but from what I have pieced together from the various reports and experience with many parades here in Midland, the parade probably bottle-necked and caused the semi to stop before completely crossing the tracks.

 

In the past year or two, our train traffic has increased like crazy as a primary route for container trains. The crossings have been upgraded to no require trains to have to sound horns as the frequency has become a nuisance. So far the NTSB has verified that the gates, lights etc are working and even witnesses pointed out that the gates came down and hit the trailer.

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the 4 victims and all that were injured.

 

The 4 victims were all veterans being honored by the event:

 

37-year-old Marine Corp. CWO3 Gary Stouffer

47-year-old Army SGM Lawrence Boivin

34-year-old Army SGT Joshua Michael

43-year-old Army SGM William Lubbers

 

I have linked their submitted auto biographies posted on one of the many news sites

[John]

I've been following the story. Crazy how it happened. Awful.