A heroic train engineer prevented a near tragedy last week when he stopped his train in time to avoid what turned out to be a live puppy tied to the tracks. The Union-Pacific engineer, who was driving in Riverside County, California, saw a person walking away from the tracks and thought he saw something left behind. A 78-year-old man, who authorities later found to be senile, had tied the puppy to the tracks because his family didn’t want him and didn’t know what to do with him. After the engineer halted the train just in time, a railroad agent untied the puppy, which they named Banjo. “It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve seen,” the agent said.
