Spijkenisse, Netherlands
Art saves train: A runaway metro train that burst through a barrier and ran off its elevated track came to rest on a huge plastic sculpture of a whale’s tail. Had the artwork not been in place, the lead car would have plunged 30 feet to the ground, but as it was, the conductor— the only person on the train—escaped uninjured. “It’s like the scene out of a Hollywood movie,” said Ruud Natrop, safety spokesman for the Rotterdam area metro system. “Thank God the tail was there.” The artwork, by sculptor Maarten Struijs, is titled Saved by the Whale’s Tail. “I am amazed that it is so strong,” Struijs said. “When plastic has stood for 20 years, you don’t expect it to hold up a metro train.”