DuPont, WA Train Wreck December 18, 2017

I am tracking down a story that hams assisted in the train wreck near DuPont, WA (south of Tacoma) on December 18, 2017. Are there any eyewitness accounts?

 

since it is a crime scene,only affiliated emergency and law enforcement personal are ever allowed on scenes,in fact disclosure's of most any sort are prohibited until a Final determination as to the event is officially accepted as fact.The regular looters and news abusers,are kept away from the scene to keep it pristine.The best help a HAM can do is to stay clear of the action,some of the React guys did help traffic around the Interstates closure,so they are quite relevant.

 

So your answer is that hams did not participate? You know this for a fact?

If hams showed up and were a problem we need to know this. If they contributed in any way we need to know this. We just want to do a good job.

 

I said nothing of that nature,so to be abundantly clear,Unless trained and certified to assist in a mass causality incident,Lead follow or get out of our way,placing words in the mouths of folks is a League thing.

 

Speaking of train wrecks... This thread might become one. Lets be cautious, OK?

So, my only input would be that I was close to this, not close enough to see, but close enough that it took me almost 3 hours just to find a way around the mess. None of the local radio stations had any mention of local heroes, of any type.

Being the media, they were mostly interested in pinning the blame on someone, anyone, anywhere. I was on the way to Southern Oregon that day, so I did not see any local television until my return some days later when the dust had settled and a scapegoat firmly established.

By then most of the local heroes had emerged. Actually do not remember if anyone of them were hams, just the usual regular folks caught in a very UN-regular situation.

 

Were you expecting a eyewitness to be here on QRZ ?

 

Received Wisdom here on Teh Zed is that hams cannot contribute in any way and only interfere, despite the evidence.

 

I tried to research this, but the WA state SEC apparently didn't file a report for January, so if anything was reported to him, it didn't get passed up the chain. You might start with the ARES EC in the county where this happened - that and the local clubs.

 

I was watching the news reports on this all the time, since it was just about the only thing on the news. I do not recall any mention of ham radio, by any of the several news agencies I listened to.

 

I arrived at the scene minutes before it happened. My ham-senses were tingling. I knew something was about to go down.

Just as the train crashed all over the place, i jumped straight into the air and slowed down time so i could observe the carnage as it unfolded below me. I was able to determine the trajectory of each car, which gave me enough intel to form a rescue mission.

Once back on the ground i hastily set about my work mopping up the wreckage while sending thousands of 599 signal reports: i was doing 60wpm with my left hand while saving the world with my right. It was about this time that I heard a react member say "Breaker breaker" on a local 2meter repeater. I knew he was jealous and just trying to slow me down. I halted my wreckage-cleanup for 34.2 seconds so i could triangulate the offending speaker, run to his location, smash his beaufgeng radio, and declare his operation officially over. I also filed the proper documentation with my radio-crime-fighting-friends over at the FCC. They mailed me another gold star several days later.

Once I finished punishing the train wreck, I went to a bar to have a beer. While there, the mayor gave me the keys to the city, a brand new safety-orange Fender stratocaster, and two ice cold blue-ribbon beers. Several ladies rubbed my back during an interview with Tom Brokaw.