SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4) -- For a teenager, who's full of new hormones and feeling invincible, racing a train has to be a thrill like no other. Beat it and you feel more alive than you ever have. The other option... "You're always gonna lose against a train. even a tie is a loss against a train," Vern Keeslar says. He spends much of his time saving teens from themselves before they take a crazy risk that can cost them their lives. Keeslar is with the national, non profit Operation Lifesaver. He says you score no bragging rights if you're dead or badly hurt, crushed under tons of speeding steel.
We talked with Kesslar after a Sandy woman, Anna Beninati a freshman in music, dance and theater at Colorado State lost both her legs when she and friends tried to hop a moving freight train on a trip back to Fort Collins from Denver.
Last year, two people died in Utah, killed under moving trains. The number of pedestrian -train deaths nationwide was 450. That's why Kesslar's offering teens at Salt Lake's West High a chance to ride the rails this Friday to see firsthand the power of the freight trains that move through their school's neighborhood. He says, "Part of learning is repetition. So we (want to) hit them several different times with the idea that 'Hey, wait for the train. it's only five minutes! you have your whole life ahead of you! wait five minutes."
