Teen Run Over by Train Says Angel Saved Him

Fayetteville, N.C. — Joshua Kosch says he is feeling well these days – two months after a freight train ran him over in downtown Fayetteville and doctors amputated his right leg.

Kosch said he saw an angel who helped him survive the accident on Friday, Nov. 23, 2007. The 19-year-old had gotten dressed up and was walking to A Dickens Holiday, an annual downtown festival.

"I basically dressed up in the attire appropriate for the Dickens Festival, a Victorian-times style," Kosch said.

Kosch stood on one set of railroad tracks near Hay Street, while waiting for a southbound train to pass him on the adjoining tracks, his parents said. Kosch did not hear the northbound train approaching him, they said.

Due to pending litigation, family members could not talk more about the accident.

Although the train had slowed to about 20 mph and despite his best efforts, the conductor could not stop the 93-car train in time to avoid hitting Kosch, a CSX spokesperson said.

Kosch said he remembers seeing an angel during the accident.

"He (the angel) told me it wasn't my time," Kosch said. "And I couldn't get up. And that's because he held me down."

Kosch spent several weeks in intensive care at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, recovering from rib fractures, broken vertebrae, a broken arm and punctured lung. His right leg was amputated above his knee.

His mother, Barbara, said seeing her son survive has been a miracle.

"It makes me stronger in my faith, knowing that God was there, right there, when it happened," Barbara Kosch said. "He had people by his side after the accident happened to hold his hand."

Six weeks later, Joshua Kosch was still in the hospital, but undergoing physical therapy and preparing to get a prosthetic leg. His mother and baby sister Harley visit every day, and he has a DVD player in his room, Kosch said.

"(I'm) just feeling real well," he said. "I mean, (I'm) tired every so often, leg hurts just a bit."

Kosch expects to get out of the hospital in a month – just in time for his mother's February wedding.

"If he wants, he'll walk me down the aisle," Barbara Kosch said.