Retired Chief Gene Taylor saves teen from getting hit by train

Belleville’s retired Police Chief Gene Taylor is being praised for saving the life of a troubled Ash Township teenager on Sept. 5 in Carleton as she stood in front of a quickly approaching train.
Chief Taylor retired from his Belleville position in 2014 and for the last year has been working as a part-time police officer in Carleton for three or four days a month to keep his police credentials.
He said Carleton, in Monroe County, is about half the size of Belleville, with half the population. It’s kind of like what Belleville used to be years ago when everyone knew each other, he said.
Chief Taylor said when he was on duty Sept. 5 he received a dispatch call at 3:50 p.m. about a disgruntled juvenile arguing with her mother at the Mill. The girl was threatening to kill herself.
He said he responded to the call driving on Jones Street which is parallel to the railroad track. He said he glimpsed out of the corner of his eye a northbound train coming and he knew he had to hurry so he didn’t get caught on the wrong side of the tracks.
When he got to the Mill the 14-year-old girl was struggling with her mother. They were about the same size, he recalled.
Chief Taylor said when she saw him, the teenager was angry and yelled at her mother, “You called the f—ing pigs.” Then, to Taylor: “You’re racist. All cops are racist…”
At that point the crossing arms activated and the engineer blew the warning horn blast, as required when approaching a crossing. The girl reacted like a horse bolting from the starting gate, Taylor said.
“She took off to the tracks with her mom right behind her and me next,” Taylor said. “I thought I’d see a girl get hit.”
The teen faced southbound in the middle of the tracks with her hands up in an X-type stance. The mother was there, too, trying to stop her daughter.
“I grabbed the little girl and threw her to the ground, face first in the gravel, and then sat on her and handcuffed her,” Taylor recalled, saying the girl was struggling and screaming, “Let me up.”
He said he remembers she continually swore at him, but he is proud he didn’t respond to that and did not curse her during the tumultuous incident. He stayed
sitting on top of her until the train passed.
He said he didn’t remember how the mother got off the track, but he may have pushed her.
Taylor said he drove the girl to the hospital for treatment in Monroe and talked with her along the way. He said she is very smart in math and is taking classes in the ninth grade that he remembers taking in the tenth grade.
She told him that she didn’t want to live because nobody cares about her.
“I care about you,” Taylor told her. He reports she was smiling when he said goodbye to her at the hospital. When asked by a nurse why he had brought her in, he explained, “She tried to kiss a train.”
When he got home that day, his wife asked him, “How was your day?” and he replied that there was a disgruntled girl that he had to take to the hospital.
The next day he had a meeting with the Carleton Police Chief Roy Johnson. Chief Johnson said he had been contacted by officers in other jurisdictions who wanted to know why his officer was yelling into the mike about a suicide attempt and that the subject was in custody. They would have come to help if he needed it.
Taylor said he was shouting because the train sound was so close that he didn’t think he could be heard.
Also, the CSX Railroad officials called the chief after they looked at their video from the train that showed Taylor was 1.27 seconds from getting hit when he grabbed the girl from the tracks.
At 25 mph the train was moving at 47 feet per second and, at 20 yards, it was 1.27 seconds away.
“I never saw the train,” Taylor recalls, referring to it as tunnel vision. “Things just happened. I was sitting on her so she wouldn’t go back.”
He repeated, “I never saw the train.” If he had looked at the train he might have “stutter-stepped” (hesitated) and the ending would have been different, he said.
Chief Johnson referred to Taylor as a hero and told him, “Don’t say you were just doing your job,” referring to Taylor’s usual comment.
The Monroe News covered the life-saving story and it was picked up by Channel 4 television in Detroit and other media. One reporter told Taylor that there is so much negative reporting on cops that they all wanted a “feel-good” story about police.
When referred to as a hero, Taylor replied, “There’s a little bit of hero in all of us.”
The day after the rescue was the 40th anniversary of Taylor becoming a police officer. He worked for one year in Wayne, where his father had been an officer, one year in Carleton, and 38 years for the City of Belleville.
Taylor said when he was an officer in the City of Belleville that has two train crossings he took a class from the railroad companies. He said the big lesson was to call the engineer crew to make sure they are all right after an incident, so they will know someone cares about them.
He said he tried and no one picked up the CSX number he called, but he later learned the CSX crew was pretty well shook up after this incident. They have reports of close calls and this was way over the line for a close call, he said.
“For me, the sun came up the next morning. The girl was safe. And, the train crew didn’t have to have nightmares,” Taylor said.