(The following report by Michael King appeared on the Post-Crescent website on September 25.)
TOWN OF MENA-SHA, Wisc. — Gordon Hill finally got a chance Monday night to personally greet and thank the man who saved him from heartache.
Hill was the engineer on a Canadian National Railway train on Sept. 1 that would have hit a 3-year-old Appleton boy on the railroad tracks just east of American Drive except for the heroism of town resident Merlin Harn.
“I thought we killed them both,” said Hill, who last saw Harn sprinting down the tracks before his vision was blocked by the front of the train as they got too close.
On Monday, Hill and a railroad co-worker traveled from Fond du Lac to attend the Town Board meeting where Harn and his wife, Teresa, were honored for their life-saving roles. A large gallery of town residents, family and friends saluted the couple with two standing ovations.
Town Police Chief Rod McCants presented Merlin Harn, 40, with a Civilian Award of Gallantry and presented his wife with a gift certificate courtesy of the Town of Menasha Police Benevolent Association.
Town officials played an audio recording of the 911 call made by Teresa Harn reporting two young children on the tracks just east of the American Drive crossing near the south end of Cold Spring Road. Harn jumped out of the vehicle his wife had been driving and sprinted 40 to 50 yards down the track, scooping the boy up and jumping to the side just as the train raced by.
The train, which had about 100 cars and weighed roughly 11,000 tons, was going about 35 mph as it approached the crossing. Upon seeing the kids ahead on the tracks and the man running after them, Hill initiated an emergency stop that possibly gave Harn a few extra seconds to save the boy.
“It’s real emotional,” Hill said. “I’ve had other incidents that didn’t turn out so well. It makes you live all of them all over again.”
“I get choked up whenever I think about it,” said Hill’s co-worker, Bill Reid, the train’s conductor.
McCants praised Harn for his quick, unselfish response, saying “some of us may have frozen” and it would have been too late. Harn credited his wife for having made the 911 call out of concern for the safety of the children on the tracks.
“We’re incredibly thankful that we were there,” said Teresa.