Rufus Lee McAffee wasn’t prepared for the really bad day he was about to have last Tuesday. Like a verse from the famous 1970s country song, You Never Even Called Me By My Name by David Allan Coe, McAffee would suffer the exact same string of unfortunate events.

McAffee’s tragic day began as he was driving his beat up Dodge Ram truck to the bus station next door to the Cabell County courthouse in Huntington, West Virginia, to pick up his mother, Mary Ellen (right). The elder McAffee had just finished her 30-day sentence for drunken disorderly conduct and was being released that day. However, Rufus McAffee had been drinking heavily that morning, and became disoriented on the way into town. The fact that it was pouring rain didn’t help. Rufus was running more than two hours late.

Meanwhile, Mary Ellen was released from jail and waited impatiently in the lobby of the bus depot. After waiting more than an hour, with her son nowhere in sight, Mary Ellen left the station and started to walk down the highway in hopes of hitching a ride home. The poor woman never made it more than a few blocks. The events that followed from that point become a bit sketchy.

Authorities believe that while walking along the rain-drenched shoulder of the blacktop road, Mary Ellen McAffee stepped onto the railroad crossing without paying attention to the signals. She was immediately struck by a high-speed Burlington Northern train carrying 75 hopper cars full of coal. Neither Mary Ellen nor the BN conductor saw it coming, due to the poor visibility that day. Mary Ellen McAffee was killed instantly.

Rufus McAffee was devastated at hearing the news. “I fucked up and lost Mama,” sobbed McAffee. “If only I was on time…if only I was there for her…Mama would still be alive. But I was drunk the day she got out of prison, and before I could get to the station in my pickup truck, she got run over by that damned ol’ train.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do without her,” added McAffee, as he was led off in handcuffs after being arrested on the other side of town for driving under the influence. “Now she won’t be there to pick me up when I get out of jail.”

Sheriff’s deputy Riley Marshall noted the striking similarities between the events that day and the lyrics of the song, while he was helping investigators piece together clues at the accident site. “I have that David Allan Coe album on cassette,” said the deputy, hands shaking slightly as he surveyed the carnage. “That song used to be one of my favorites. But I don’t reckon I’ll be listening to that anymore.”

Railroad and NTSB officials are still investigating the accident, but do not believe the train conductor was at fault.