Less than 48 hours after taking on a VIA Rail train - face first - Luke Chartrand is talking about his experience.
The 23-year-old London man was riding his bicycle when he collided with a train around 9 p.m. Saturday.
"Not too many people can say they got hit by a train and walked away - let alone two days ago and I'm sitting here fine," he says.
He says he crossed a tight private lot at York and William streets and then came up suddenly on the rail crossing.
He admits he did not hear the working bells or the train because he was listening to loud music.
Only at the last moment did he see the flashing lights and then the front of a train. "I just seen it, and then at that moment, 'Is this it, is this game over for me?'"
In most cases it would be, but he adds, "I'm pretty sure I clipped the corner of the train...and my bike went under."
His bicycle rolled several times and was left mangled underneath the train.
Luke blacked out for half-a-minute, before waking up to a train conductor telling him he'd called an ambulance.
Amazingly, he suffered no broken bones, only scrapes and a cut to the head requiring seven stitches.
"I realized I was still alive and I was really thankful for that," he says.
And what lesson has he learned from this death-defying incident?
"I'm probably not going bike with headphones in my ears anymore."
