Lewis Mitchell, Jr., 12, schoolboy, attempted to save Royall M. Surrell, 7, from being killed by a train, Rock Hill, South Carolina, February 2, 1953. At a railroad crossing, while Royall was attempting to climb over a coupler between two cars near the end of a long freight train which had stopped, the locomotive suddenly started. Jerking violently, the train began moving. Royall was thrown from the coupler and landed midway the rails of the track directly beneath a coal car equipped with two metal unloading hoppers nine feet apart which sloped downward from the floor of the car to within eight inches of the rails and projected 14 inches beyond them. Royall turned over onto her side and extended one hand toward Lewis, who had jumped backward from the car as the train started and was standing close to the track. Lewis crouched and tried to take hold of Royall. Before he could do so, the hopper 13 feet from the forward end of the car struck Royall. She was dragged five feet along the crossing and then came free of the hopper. The train moving at two m.p.h. gradually was increasing speed. Lewis stepped to opposite Royall and, placing one foot six inches from the track, knelt on one knee. Obtaining a hold on Royall, he lifted upward and pivoted from the track with her just as the rear of the coal car passed, the other hopper narrowly missing him. Royall’s body had been crushed at the waist, and she was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Lewis escaped injury. 42786-3894
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