Bloody Wreck: Former Congressman Patrick Murphy Describes Harrowing Train Derailment

As is often the case, one's fellow human beings are almost as a big a threat to one's safety in the aftermath as the original disaster.

Below, I've rearranged his quotes to flow more chronologically.

"I'm sitting there with my ear buds in, I'm sitting there doing some work, and then all the sudden you just felt something happen," Murphy exclaimed. "The whole train was shaking and it went far to the left, and then it went violently like it was going to tip to the left, and then it was violently to the right and our car just flipped over on the side. Right away, I was holding onto the table a little bit–I mean, the force was just overwhelming."

"We just flipped over. And then it was just dark and just dusty, and just a lot of blood," Murphy said. "It was mayhem at first. I was in the cafe car, so about eight or nine cars, I was in the fourth car probably. There was a lot of blood. A lot of folks got banged up, got hurt bad."

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pic.twitter.com/0gzeo9Kr39

— Patrick J. Murphy (@PatrickMurphyPA) May 13, 2015

"[People] didn’t care about anyone else, so stepping over people and stuff," he said.

"So I pushed out the emergency window. I had to lift myself up because it was kind of on the ceiling and then lifted people up. About eight or nine people got out."

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Murphy, rather than exiting the train quickly, helped the injured passengers.

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"You think you're gonna die, to be honest with you," said Murphy. "I'll be honest with you, I thought I was goner. God was looking down on me last night, and a lot of us."

posted by Ace at 11:15 AM

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