Searching the rails for some meaning

A sad, yet thought-provoking incident took place in our area of Southeast Texas over the weekend.

An 18-year-old, Matthew Thomas, was killed Sunday morning after being hit by a train. Thomas, who plays defensive end on the Vidor High School Pirates football team, had been lying on the railroad track for a reason that has yet to be known.

Much local attention has been paid to the story by area media, which is in my humble opinion as a journalist by trade, is as it should be. I don’t praise our local daily newspaper much these days but I feel the Beaumont Enterprise has done a pretty good job covering the story. This includes the paper bringing up the fact that Thomas is an African-American in a school where blacks make up only around 1 percent of enrollment. It is important to note that because of Vidor’s past as a Ku Klux Klan haven and where racial strife had seem to play a large part in the community for a number of years. Many in the community have also made great efforts to fight the town’s racist past and, understandably, cringe every time some kind of incident happens involving blacks and whites.

No one is saying that Thomas died because he is a black in Vidor. I hope that it is discovered by authorities that Matthew didn’t die because of his race. This is especially in light of how his teammates, friends and the community responded to his death, with shock and sorrow. Thomas appeared, from news reports at least, to be a very well-liked kid and football player even though he only lived in Vidor for a few years.

The manner in which Thomas died is unfortunately not all that rare. I can think of four or five such incidences in communities in which I have lived. I also wrote about two of those deaths in separate communities. In one of those occasions I had a small involvement.

One night I heard a call on my newspaper’s scanner at home that a man had hit by a train not far from where I lived. This was in the small town where I held my first job in journalism, as editor of a small weekly. Such emergency scenes in small towns like that one are fortunately not as restrictive for journalists as in larger cities, so I went straight to where EMTs were preparing to take the guy who was hit by a train to the hospital. The train had run over the top of the man’s head.

The tracks were down an embankment where the railroad crossed a creek. So I carefully made my wade through the brush and trees to where everything was happening. And because there weren’t enough people there, I actually helped carry the victim on a backboard up the hill to the ambulance. That was some 20 years ago and before my upper and lower spine had revolted against me.

I know there are journalists out there who never worked at a small weekly — having to report, write, layout and paste up the newspaper and write the headlines, handle complaints, sweep the floor, clean the toilet and that was when I had a secretary — who would be appalled at my getting involved in the story. But that’s life in the small city.

Eventually, I found out that the victim, who died during the 20-mile ride to the hospital, had been camping out on a railroad trestle with his friend. I learned somewhat later that the two men were crackheads and may have pulled a bunch of armed robberies between Dallas and East Texas. They were being modern-day, crackhead hobos, I guess. The victim had lain his head against the track to go to sleep. You can make your own comment there.

In another story I wrote about a man in Central Texas being hit after lying on a track. I can’t remember all the circumstances. Someone I interviewed, perhaps he was a railroad PR flak or a cop, said sometimes people have been known to lay with their heads against the rails because they figured the vibration would wake them up. Most of the cases involved alcohol or drugs. I’m not saying that is the case with Thomas because no reason has been announced, at least.

Someone committing suicide by such means is possible, I suppose, but Jeez.

I hope some reason for the death of Thomas is eventually discovered. I have mentioned I hope it isn’t foul play involving racial issues or foul play in general. But an answer, no matter the cause, might help bring a little meaning to a community who seemed fond of the young man who died.

Sometimes it is hard to make sense of the world no matter how many times one has seen or experienced something or known of such an incident. That is kind of a basic reason for news gathering and reporting.