Man In Wheelchair Hit By Train As He Was Coming From Church

thanks to DS1 for the scoop (and dare) :D

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MUNCIE - A paraplegic using a motorized wheelchair was going to church Sunday when he was struck and killed by a CSX train near Saint Lawrence Catholic Church.

A stroke and two brain surgeries paralyzed one side of Duane MacIntosh's body after a fall several years ago.

MacIntosh, 52, lived with his mother, Olie Seals, on South Vine Street, following his disability. Sunday morning, MacIntosh dressed for church and headed out the door on his motorized chair.

"He had been in a lot of pain with his head," said Seals, who was being comforted by her minister, Aston Chambers of Mount Zion Baptist Church.

MacIntosh never made it to Mount Zion Sunday morning, but had stopped at Saint Lawrence, just down the street.

Lynn Thornburg, a Saint Lawrence parishioner, said MacIntosh seemed to get upset during the gospel lesson and become loud. Other parishioners asked MacIntosh to wait until after mass to talk to a minister.

"That was the first time I ever saw him," said Father Dennis Goth. "I would have talked to the gentleman if I had a chance."

MacIntosh left the church and headed south on Hackley Street. There he stopped on the southern track as CSX conductor Terry Gillespie of Danville was bearing down on the crossing with a 38-car train.

Muncie police officer John Kowalski said MacIntosh tried to lift his hand to signal the train, and it appeared his chair wheel got stuck in the track at the Hackley crossing, south of Charles Street.

The engine struck MacIntosh and the chair, throwing them into the air, with MacIntosh landing about 30 feet from the impact.

Unconscious and bleeding at the scene, MacIntosh was taken by emergency medical crews Ball Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:54 a.m. by Charles Maddox, a deputy coroner. The incident had just happened around 10:38 a.m. before Saint Lawrence and Mount Zion had ended Sunday morning services.

Chambers was conducting a service when he was informed by police of the fatal accident. He rushed to the hospital still wearing his church robes to comfort Seals and give last rites to MacIntosh.

"He was a nice young man who came back to the Lord," said Chambers, who said church members were devastated.

http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/1/042082-2431-001.html

your wheel chair stuck and a train heading your way. I hope he is in a peaceful and pain free place now!

God's Finger of Mercy. Runs twice a day.

:rofl:

I can only imagine his terror as his wheels got stuck and he could hear the train barreling down on him