Julie K. Callaghan

Julie K. CallaghanJulie K. Callaghan attempted to rescue 40-year-old Matthew Jarvis from being struck by a train May 26, 2018, in Chilliwack, B.C. Jarvis was in a motorized wheelchair when its rear wheels became caught on a railroad track. Callaghan, a 44-year-old vocational counselor of Chilliwack, had stopped her vehicle at the crossing, as the gates descended and warning lights flashed. As a train traveling at 50 m.p.h. approached she saw that Jarvis was stuck. She darted beneath the crossing gate and went to Jarvis and, with another woman, attempted to lift and pull the wheelchair from the path of the train. With her back to the train, they tried twice unsuccessfully to free the chair. Callaghan looked over her shoulder and, seeing the train bearing down on them, began to move away from the track, when the train struck Jarvis and Callaghan’s hand. Jarvis was killed. Callaghan sustained broken bones and other injuries to her hand, which required surgery, and lacerations and scrapes to her legs.

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