(The Associated Press distributed the following article on February 12.)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — It started out as a tranquil night watching the sun set and the stars rise. But, for three Charleston young people, it turned into a harrowing 22-mile ride atop a moving freight train.
Jack Lowther, 22, his 18-year-old girlfriend Jacklyn “Blair” Gary, and Mary Allison Morris, 21, were watching the sky from a bridge Tuesday evening when they decided to climb aboard a parked freight car for a better view, he said.
They soon discovered that was a bad idea.
“We were on top, and it started moving,” said Lowther. “I started trying to get everyone off the train, but the girls were too scared because it had already started to pick up speed.”
They lay down on top of a box car as the train picked up speed, slipping under bridges that were too low for comfort.
The young people were too far back on the train to signal the conductor and there was no one along the wooded tracks to call to. Lowther then climbed down between two freight cars and helped his companions do so.
Although the reception was poor, Morris managed to call 911 on a cell phone and Shawanna Curnell, a dispatcher with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, knew something was wrong.
“You could hear the wind blowing, so I knew she was outside somewhere,” Curnell said. “She was screaming and asking for help.”
The dispatchers contacted rail lines to determine what trains were running that evening and CSX and Amtrak notified their trains to stop and check for trespassers.
By the time the train slowed, it was nearing Adams Run, about 22 miles from where their journey began.
Misty Skipper, a spokeswoman for CSX, said freight trains in the area generally run no faster than 59 mph.
When the train slowed to about 20 mph, Gary jumped, banged her head and was knocked unconscious, Lowther said.
Lowther and Morris waited for the train to slow more before they jumped themselves. They found Gary and helped her about two miles through a marshy area toward some lights.
They reached U.S. Highway 17 and Lowther’s mother was able to reach him on his cell phone and call deputies who picked them up.
Gary, who also banged her head while on the train, seemed better Wednesday but had no recollection of the ride, he said.
Deputies charged the three with trespassing.
“I just want to tell everyone else not to try this,” Lowther said. “It’s not fun.”