Rescuers pull woman, collapsed man from car just before train hits

Bette Pearce and Shawn Foucher
The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — For the past year, 81-year-old Theodore Ramsey had cared for himself and his ailing wife.
So when he fell ill Monday morning, he stuck with that independence — he and wife Emma, 85, climbed into their Buick sedan and headed to a local hospital with Theodore behind the wheel.
But that decision proved to be fatal.
Police say Theodore Ramsey collapsed behind the wheel, which sent the car careening along Cleveland Street before stopping on the East Bridge Street railroad tracks.
There, the situation grew dire: As rescue workers tried to help the Ramseys, a train came bearing down on them.
“As soon as we saw the train, it was only seconds before it hit the car,” said Elyria fire Capt. Robert Donofrio. “We had less than a minute, maybe 30 seconds — we had to quickly pull the victims out and were only 10 to 15 feet away when the car was hit.
“We were a little shook up,” Donofrio said.
Emergency crews got the Ramseys out with seconds to spare. Theodore Ramsey later was pronounced dead, and rescue workers believe an unknown medical condition that affected him before the crash was to blame. His wife was taken to EMH Regional Medical Center, where her condition was unknown late Monday.
The events unfolded just before 8:52 a.m. Monday, when Elyria police Officer Ben Currier reported the accident while patrolling the East Bridge Street area.
Police say when Ramsey collapsed, his car had drifted across the northbound lanes of Cleveland Street and ran across the south lawn at LifeShare Community Blood Services before heading up an embankment and coming to rest on the railroad crossing.
Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 8:55 a.m.
According to 911 tapes, a police dispatcher called Conrail at 8:56 a.m. to notify the company that the tracks were blocked; the dispatcher requested that all rail traffic be stopped.
At 9 a.m., an Elyria police officer called the dispatcher a second time and asked if Conrail had been notified — a train whistle could be heard in the background during that call.
“A train is coming right at us,” the officer told the dispatcher, who again called Conrail.
The Conrail dispatcher put the police dispatcher on hold for a few seconds before saying the train had been notified and was slowing down.
But by that time, it was too late: The 88-car train was unable to stop in time to avoid a collision with the Ramseys’ car.
Emma Ramsey was extremely lucky, Donofrio said.
“The train hit the passenger side of the car — the side where she was sitting,” he said.
Tom Kelley, director of Lorain County Emergency Management, said he could hear the train braking from his Gateway Boulevard office, which is about a quarter-mile from the tracks and two miles from the accident scene.
“We’ve never seen anything like that,” Donofrio said. “We’ve been to a lot of car-versus-train and pedestrian-versus-train accidents, but we’ve never witnessed it first hand. We were very grateful to be able to get everyone out.”
Two LifeShare workers, Kelly Bare and Susan Steele, were smoking in the company’s south parking when the accident occurred. Bare said she ran to Ramseys’ car while Steele ran inside and called 911.
“He was all bloody and slumped over on his wife,” Bare said. “I stayed with her to try to comfort her until the paramedics got here. She just kept saying, ‘Where’s Theodore? Where’s Theodore?’
“Just as they got them out of the car, the train hit it,” Bare said. “I mean, they had only seconds before it hit. The train was going pretty slow, but I guess it couldn’t stop in time.”
Elyria police Lt. Andy Eichenlaub said police had received a report earlier that morning of a beige Buick driving erratically near state Route 57 and Taylor Street.
The tragic accident stunned the Ramseys’ neighbors on Colgate Avenue.
“(Theodore) had just commented to my husband that it was getting a little harder for him to the yard work these days,” said Chris Wagers, who lives next door.
Wagers said Ramsey had recently purchased a riding lawn mower to make his yard tasks a little easier.
“Of the two of them, I thought he was the healthier one,” Wagers said, shaking her head. “This is just a big shock for all of us in the neighborhood.”
Wagers said the Ramseys lived at the Colgate Avenue home for the past 45 years, and the couple had been married for decades. Theodore Ramsey had a tremendous talent for woodwork and carpentry, and he handcrafted every lick of furniture in the Ramsey home, Wagers said.
“They were just a wonderful couple,” Wagers said, adding that Ramsey was highly attentive to his ailing wife. “They shadowed each other everywhere. She depended on him — he was her rock.”
Wagers cried gently as she pointed toward a set of white lawn chairs on the Ramseys’ front porch Monday.
“If it was nice weather, they’d always be sitting out there,” Wagers said. “This is a very nice street in general, but everybody would stop by to talk to them.”
Late Monday, passers-by slowed and cast a sad glance at the Ramseys’ home, where the two white chairs sat empty.
Contact Bette Pearce at 329-7148 or bpearce@chroniclet.com. Contact Shawn Foucher at 329-7197 or sfoucher@chroniclet.com.

 

	Bruce Bishop / chronicle LifeCare paramedics look over the wreckage of the car following the accident Monday morning at the railroad tracks on East Bridge Street.
	Hear the dispatchers try to stop the train - Watch footage from the scene and see an interview with the county coroner.

 

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