(The following story by Moody Connell was published in the January 21 online issue of the Mississippi Press.)
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — “He wouldn’t have made it if Mr. Bill hadn’t gotten him out of the car,” said Tina Couch, a clerk at Fisherman’s Corner Store, who witnessed the dramatic rescue of Sunday night of a motorist whose car was stalled on the railroad tracks Sunday.
For 66-year-old Bill Stork it was a nerve wracking experience, but he twice pulled James Roberts of 4607 Parkinson Rd., Moss Point out of his car to save him from being hit by a train Sunday.
“I didn’t want him to get hurt. I told him, man, you can buy another car but not another body. I didn’t want him to get killed,” said Stork who turned rescuer and witnessed his third incident on the tracks.
Dressed in a black suit and a black cowboy hat, Roberts was spinning his wheels and trying to dislodge a front wheel that slipped off the road in front of the grocery store just off Old Mobile Highway about 8 p.m, Stork said.
“I got him out of the car once and he got back inside and began gunning it to try to get it off the tracks,” Stork said Monday.
Seeing a train approaching with horns and bells blasting a warning, Stork made one more effort to bring 74-year-old retired construction worker Roberts to safety. “I grabbed him by his coat and tugged him away from his car and then got back toward the store,” Stork said.
Roberts remained near the track and appeared to be trying to flag the train down. Couch called the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office who notified the train engineer that a vehicle was stalled on the track. But the engineer didn’t have time to stop. The eastbound train broadsided the Kia and pushed it 300 feet down the track.
About six months ago, a customer spotted someone sitting on the tracks and bought him a hotdog, but the individual decided not to move, Stork said. “Sam can move pretty fast and grabbed the guy and pulled him off the tracks just in front of the train,” Stork said. Three years ago a woman motorist escaped serious injury when her car stalled on the tracks, but the debris flew all around his store.
Described as easy going by a next-door neighbor who has known Roberts 11 years, the retiree didn’t let his close call slow him down.
“He bought a red Kia Spectra. A 2003 model,”said Elizabeth Cucci of Kim Beck Kia, who said Roberts showed up early Monday morning to replace his damaged car.