William Lynn Smith Life in the Ditch

This is story is dedicated to the men and women who respond to releases of hazardous materials in transit. These dedicated individuals aren’t hip shooting cowboys that rush in where angels fear to tread. They are professionals that work very methodically and with great care to minimize personal danger before addressing life and environmentally threatening situations. The instances in this story are true; however, the chronology, characters, and locations are fiction. All the descriptions of the incidents were told to me by responders to places like Covington, Tennessee, Reimage River in Wisconsin, and Ozark, Arkansas. During my training sessions in Pueblo, Colorado, many stories, mostly true but some admittedly embellished, were told by many different responders from all major railroads and emergency service organizations.