A Dunedin teen brought the Taieri Gorge tourist train to a shuddering stop yesterday - after dropping his iPhone.
"I pulled the emergency thing that you only pull in extreme
emergencies," a relieved Spencer Sutherland Todd said yesterday, at the
Dunedin Railway Station.
The 13-year-old was on the railway trip with his family and some
visiting Australian friends when he decided to take a picture of the Mt
Allan scenery on his iPhone.
But his quick snap turned into a teenage horror movie, when he dropped
the phone he was given for Christmas two years ago. "It is very
important to me."
His family watched in disbelief as Spencer pulled the emergency lever. "I just panicked and pulled," he said.
The train stopped about 700m from where he dropped the phone, and staff
undertook a quick but unsuccessful search, before saying they would look
for it on the return trip.
Spencer said he did not expect to see his phone again, but to his
amazement, an eagle-eyed staff member spotted it on the return journey.
It was presented undamaged to Spencer, amid applause from his fellow
passengers. "I was very happy," he said.
Taieri Gorge Railway chief executive Murray Bond said using the train's
emergency lever was "not encouraged... usually only in the event of a
disaster. Not the sort of thing we encourage, but this worked out
nicely. That is the spirit of Taieri Gorge Railway; that we do things
other companies won't necessarily do."
Source: The Otago Daily Times
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