This was about 4 miles from where I usually watch trains. There were several trains backed up (very unusual for a Sunday afternoon.). Very sad story indeed. I feel for the family and the locomotive crew.
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/breaking_news/02breakingnews.txt
Will people never learn. [V]
I am starting to doubt it. [:(]
On a side note, this was on NS’s piedmont division line.
It’s always sad when something like this happens.[:(] But I think we will continue to see people who lack common sense and good judgement, get themselves killed while trespassing on railroad property. If I were to have done this and gotten myself killed, it would be my own fault and no one else’s. We’ve got too many people in this country who don’t seem to want to take responsibility for their own actions, and how many ridiculous lawsuits are filed as a direct result?[banghead]
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
Sad case. Almost wonder if he was comitting suicide
On another note, it never fails to fill me with a mixture of horror and humor when someone responds to every one of these incidents with an anti-lawsuit rant, never once seeing the ironic contradiction in their calls for responsibilty and anti-lawsuit/lawyer views.
Ummm… You’ve lost me. Are you saying that it is a contradiction to be for personal responsibility and against lawsuits that result from the lack of personal responsibility?
I must be missing something. [?]
Hey CP 2816, where in the accident write up does someone get blamed for this mans death. As long as there are humans, there will be accidents. You have no idea what this man may have been thinking about at the time. There is not one of us, RAILFANS included, who hasn’t been paying attention at one time or another while near the tracks, and I’m sure you are included, I admit I’ve been caught off guard already and I blame myself fo letting it happen. So do the best you can, to prevent this from happening to yourself or friends.
You are - corporate responsibility is part of personal responsibility. Tort law and lawsuits promote responsibility by allocating blame for an injury and deterring irresponsible actions by plaintiffs and defendants.
I see his point - A family refusing to admit that Uncle Whatshisname could have done anything as irresponsible as walking on the tracks tries to deflect said responsiblity by pointing out (often by way of a lawsuit) that the railroad was to blame because they didn’t do this, and that, and something else.
I will disagree with the “accidents happen” concept. Any time there is a decision involved, there is a chance to prevent an incident. Sometimes it takes a series of bad decisions to bring about the end event, and changing only one of them would prevent it from happening.
About the only type of incident that can truly be called an accident is one where something unforeseen happens (ie, something fails unexpectedly).
It’s a little early to be talking about lawsuits, personal responsibility, etc. in thes forums. Wait until the inquest derermines if it’s an accident, a suicide, drug and/or alcohol involvement, etc. In the meantime it’s a most regrettable death and is causing some family and the train crew a great deal of grief and anguish. Keep us posted Lance on what tomorrows paper says when they publish the “complete story”.
Mark
For the record - I’m not speaking to this incident - just in generalist terms.
I’ll let you know as soon as I get the paper.
Exactly - we don’t have enough information and often the news reports don’t provide adequate info to see what happened. It just annoys me to see people who have little understanding of the legal system (and that’s not an insult, the tort law system and lawsuits are way more complicated than most people realize and even many lawyers have difficulty in understanding that the tort system is about deterrence and preventing accidents rather than compensation) have knee jerk anti-lawsuit reactions when they don’t have the full story.
Here is the rest of the story…
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2007/01/30/news/top_stories/03topstory.txt
It’s a sad story, but I just do not realize why he was walking on the tracks. Forgive me, but how can people be so DUMB! One sure-fire way to get yourself killed is to walk on the railroad tracks. Operation Lifesaver says “Always expect a train.” Well of course. If there were no trains, most likely the tracks would not even be there.
Still, it’s sad for the family and the train crew who have to live with this now. The moral of this story is to not walk on railroad tracks. PERIOD!