The Metal Gods Smile Upon You

A couple of years back, 20-year-old Jesse Maggrah was listening to heavy metal on earphones. This was a bad idea, in that he was also walking on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Red Deer, Alberta. And the music was so loud, Maggrah didn’t hear the train moving toward him from behind at 30 mph.

But he felt it when the train hit him at 30 mph.

Jesse survived, though he did suffer broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a host of other injuries. His quote about the aftermath: “I thought, ‘…dude, you just got hit by a train.’” Also this:

“Maybe the metal gods above were smiling on me, and they didn't want one of their true warriors to die on them. Otherwise, I'd be up there in the kingdom of steel.”

(The story originally ran in the Edmonton Sun, but they are charging money to read their version. Oh, and Jesse was listening to Gorgoroth at the moment of impact, if you must know.)