Posted on 07/22/2017 9:25:30 AM PDT by csvset
Man dies after his vehicle carrying 2,000 pounds of missing railway plates overturns
By Jeff Hampton The Virginian-Pilot Jul 21, 2017 Updated 13 hrs ago AULANDER, N.C.
A man died Tuesday after he lost control of his vehicle loaded with more than 100 railway plates missing from a work area.
Tarris Lamont Wilkins, 40, of Windsor, died at the scene about 7 a.m. on Brick Mill Road north of Windsor, said 1st Sgt. Rodney Sawyer of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
The 1995 Ford Explorer was loaded with more than 100 rail plates weighing about 2,000 pounds, he said. The plates are used to fasten rails to wood cross ties. Investigators believe the weight of the plates shifted as Wilkins went around a curve in the road. The Explorer overturned and Wilkins was ejected, he said. Plates were scattered over the area.
Minutes earlier, Wilkins was seen at the intersection of a railroad and Brick Mill Road less than a mile from the crash scene, said Bertie County Sheriff John Holley. His vehicle was loaded with plates that had been lying near the tracks as crews made repairs, he said. An officer with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission stopped to question Wilkins. As the officer called the Bertie County Sheriffs Office for help, Wilkins left the scene, Holley said.
I met a guy that was grabbing some scrap metal from the side of a dumpster. He said the owner leaves it out for him. He said he has businesses all over town that separate the metal out for him to pick up. Plus the stuff he finds along the way. I asked him if he made much money with it.
“Yeah - I used to be homeless and doing drugs. Now I’ve got two pickup trucks [the one he had was really old, but...], three workers and we share an apartment.”
“Maybe he was redecorating his house.”
Tie plates make pretty good shingles and siding if you need ghetto armor on your house. “Stop a nine just fine.”
maybe worth $150.00 as scrap on the open market.
assuming the absence of death and dismemberment, not much profit after fuel costs to haul to nearest no-questions-asked “recycling” center.
Why call them missing when they were obviously stolen.
Legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball had a full-sized backyard railroad (with 500’ of track and a roundhouse) that he maintained from the early 40s until his death in 2002.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Flats_Railroad
That stuff is just too cool. I would drive past his house and see that darn train. It was awesome.
Darwin Award Candidate for 2017 consideration
He should have first gone to a library, looked at a book about Newtonian physics for dummies, looked at illustrations of inertia, and applied them in a thought experiment regarding vehicles with heavy interior loads taking curves too fast on highways.
He could have learned something practical.
Sometimes justice is swift and sure.
It’s kind of refreshing.
When someone drags railroad scrap into the local yard, the clerk will generally say something to the effect of: “gee, that’s pretty valuable stuff; let me call and get the top price”. Of course, he actually calls the railroad police and keeps the perp busy until they arrive.
Yea, right.......the vast majority of scrappers are in the inner cities and they're nothing but outlaws who are actually invading uninhabited properties and new construction sites and literally stripping them clean over night.........And for what it's worth, they're also preying on the new properties in the suburban areas.
They're also cutting down lamp posts in the now sparsely populated areas of the economically decimated neighborhoods .
What the heck, lets call them Metallurgical Economic Entrepreneurs and salute them.............LOL!
Any mention of social security disability? Or medicaid coverage?.......
The one near Chechnya.
Yeah - after reading posts on how little they get for scrap, he must be getting help. Still though, better than sitting in a doorway bothering passerbys.
Back in my college days, I remember watching the old “Tomorrow” show on NBC while studying one night. Tomorrow’s host, the late Tom Snyder, was a huge train buff and he was a friend of Kimball’s. So, he took a remote truck to Mr. Kimball’s home and devoted the entire hour to the animator, his work and his trains. Terrific television. You can watch the episode on You Tube; the opening his hilarious; Snyder and Kimball roll into the shot on a hand crank rail car; Kimball was a good 20 years older than Snyder, but the host is wheezing through the intro (probably because he was a chain smoker). Kimball was in better shape, and I’m guessing he wasn’t a smoker (at that point in his life).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Sa_DvvLYk
Back in my college days, I remember watching the old “Tomorrow” show on NBC while studying one night. Tomorrow’s host, the late Tom Snyder, was a huge train buff and he was a friend of Kimball’s. So, he took a remote truck to Mr. Kimball’s home and devoted the entire hour to the animator, his work and his trains. Terrific television. You can watch the episode on You Tube; the opening his hilarious; Snyder and Kimball roll into the shot on a hand crank rail car; Kimball was a good 20 years older than Snyder, but the host is wheezing through the intro (probably because he was a chain smoker). Kimball was in better shape, and I’m guessing he wasn’t a smoker (at that point in his life).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Sa_DvvLYk
I know what you’re saying. In places like NYC with tons of garbage, they do a valuable service though. They strip metals from the trash that would have gone in a landfill and get paid.
Some prior arrests will show up if you search his name. Saw one for " failure to wear seat belt" D'oh!
“Also, it’s been blazing hot in VA & NC the past week or so...”
I did a job in Washington D.C. back in 2002 or so - 105 degrees and humid. I recall driving to the motel from the field work site and looking forward to the guy with a big cooler full of ice-cold bottles of water for $2.
I’m guessing that would be an easier and more profitable means of making money. Seeing other posters, I’m surprised how little these guys get for the metal.
Greed and ignorance did him in.
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