Whale tail sculpture saved train from plummeting 30 feet off railway platform

This is a whale of a tale, even for 2020: On Nov. 2 in the Netherlands, at around 12:30 a.m. local time, a subway train overshot its stop in a station. After breaking through the end-of-line barriers, the cars almost plunged more than 30 feet to the ground. However, it was caught by a giant sculpture of a whale’s tail.

Locals in this suburban Rotterdam neighborhood as well as members of the media captured the incredible images of a subway car perched atop the whale’s tale and shared them on social media.

“This bizarre accident happened 10 minutes from where I live,” shared Twitter user Gijs Van Winklehof, along with some jaw-dropping photos.

If the images aren’t amazing enough for you, then your mind will be blown at this little fact: The sculpture’s name is “Saved by the Whale’s Tail.”

“The metro went off the rails and it landed on a monument called Saved by the Whale’s Tail. So that literally happened,” Carly Gorter of the Rijnmond regional safety authority told Agence France-Presse, according to France 24.

“Because of the whale’s tail the driver actually was saved, it’s incredible,” Gorter continued.

If that’s not some peak 2020 crazy, then we don’t know what is at this point. Twitter user @mutatrum summed up how the crazy coincidence seems like a stretch even for this year.

Local police said there were no passengers on board at the time of the accident, Forbes reported, and the driver was able to safely get out of the train on his own before being taken to the hospital for an evaluation. An investigation into the accident continues.

As of publication time, crews were preparing to salvage the subway car and remove it from the art installation.

The sculptures, which rise out of the water and curve over a bike lane, were installed 20 years ago in the park beneath the raised metro line, France 24 reported. The tails were designed to be a play on that station being the end of the train’s line.