Just the other day, a local letter to the LA Times complained of the lack of safety warnings along the “Surf line” along the So Cal coast near San Diego. A college student (grandson of the letter writers) was hit and killed when hit by a train earlier in June.
The writers were alarmed because Amtrak attributed the death to suicide but the writers did not believe that. Meanwhile, they claimed there were no warning signs in the area (Cardiff).
I have ridden along that line several times, most recently in March, and I recall seeing “No Trespassing” signs at regular intervals along the line.
Whether or not there was a sign at the exact spot where he crossed the tracks, that does not excuse people from not paying attention when crossing railroad tracks. Just the same, the upgraded welded tracks in the area allow the trains to move faster and quieter than before.
I’ve heard the comments about “survival of the fittest”, “thinning of the herd”, “Darwin award winner”, etc. But surely some of these are just accidents or carelessness, not deliberate stupidity.
How do you respond to these accidents, or do you just let 'em be?
Most safety types will tell you there is no such thing as an accident. Someone or something failed to perform as expected/required. An incident may be unavoidable given the circumstances, but it was still preventable.
I think our harshest criticism (and/or worst sarcasm) here in the forums goes to those who, despite every possible opportunity of avoiding it, still manage to collide with a train.
Suicide by train, like any suicide, is in a class by itself. We can’t usually fathom why a person would take their own life, and in these cases the method they use to do so happens to be our favorite avocation.
The subject line parallels miles of beach, most of it reached by crossing the tracks. I’m not sure what the traffic density is on that line now, but I’d have to believe that anyone who frequents the beaches wouldn’t be aware that trains use those tracks.
Those closest to a suicide victim rarely understand. Without seeing any of the reports on the incident, I can’t guess why Amtrak would say it was a suicide, but there are going to be signs that the crew might see that might indicate such.
Just last year my best friend walked on Amtrak track at the *** Lynn,Pa. and was hit by a metroliner. He was in four parts when the police came. It was very hard on me to this day. We used to go to the station and watch trains. I no longer go to that station.
There does not need to be warning signs anywhere, your warnings signs are your own eyes and ears, and if you are blind or deaf it is your own reponsibilty to know that and act accordingly. Anywhere there are train tracks there IS a train weather it is once a month or 20 times an hour makes no difference.
Then there is the philosaphy that when there is an accident, someone wanted there to be one.
I personaly strongly beleive that every grown person is responsible for his own actions.
So I dont have any sympathy for people who walk in front of trains to die. Exeption; I do have sympathy for railway employees that may be exposed to the danger of trains on a daily bases, like track maintaners and switchmen who often may depend on team effort for their safety, when someone gets injured or killed under these conditions then t is important to find out what went wrong and what can be done to prevent more accidents.
But for the general public or anyone else, if they want to walk on the tracks, fine, use your own eyes and ears, it’s not hard to NOT get hit by a train.
I usually try to let it go but I pray for all of the families involved. It’s when people who try to beat a train to a crossing get injured or killed that I do some criticism. There’s no reason to try to beat it so it makes me mad when they try.
Being interested in trains and such has taught me that BEING ON OR NEAR TRACKS IS DANGEROUS period! The problem is that people think of trains as just a “Big BUS” that can slow and stop like a bus, well, IT CAN’T! I read stories like this and SILVERCHAMPION’s story and it saddens me when it happens and I feel terrible for the families, but DAMMIT it STUPID to hang around on railroad tracks!
The circumstances around the subject story about the Surfliner happens out here on a daily basis. People using the tracks as a personal jogging path or shortcut to the beach or to just avoid the traffic on the streets. Now I have seen people doing just this from San Diego along the beach route to San Juan Capistrano and also up between Ventura, Santa Barbara and up to Goleta and every year we get a certain number of fatalities from trespassers. I wont even begin to talk about the Darwin Award winners joggin on the tracks with headphones on (at least one death per year!) What Are These People THINKING. Would they think of doing the same activites on a Highway?
While I feel for the families who lost a loved one, the issue is that folks a) don’t take the risk seriously, b) have zero situational awareness, and c) refuse to accept responsiblity for their own actions. Accidents are events that are unavoidable, mishaps are caused becasue someone or something failed. From a rail crew’s view a rail/pedestrian/auto event is an accident…because the train can’t swerve to avoid…from a victims perspective it is a mishap…and avoidable…they could have avoided it with a little situational awareness and respect for physics…ie the kinetic energy of several thousand tons moving on two steel rails.
If find it interesting, that you need to have warning signs to stay off the tracks or high tension towers or runways, any of which can be deadly. ? I would suggest that there are many more auto/ped fatalites than train/ped fatalities. But why aren’t there any “do not stand in the street” signs? So does that mean that the city is liable if I stand in the middle of the road and get hit by a car, because they did not put “stay off the street” signs up? The court would throw it out…because I should have known.
I hate to sound cold about it, but when people are stupiud…they die…and that is a fact of life.
dharmon’s comments are dead on regarding people who do not accept responsibility for their own actions. Case in point: last Friday, I was driving down Mannheim Road to see MILW #261 (which was awesome by the way) at La Grange, IL. For those of you not familiar with this highway, it is 4 to 6 lanes wide, 45 MPH speed limit, lots of trucks, runs generally through industrial areas, often with no sidewalks on either side. I come around a curve and there’s a guy jogging IN THE ROAD, wearing HEADPHONES. How stupid can you be? He needed a sign on his back, “I’m an idiot, run me over.”
I guess you just can’t teach people common sense.
Generally I bring the train to the quickest possible safe stop when I hear a train hit someone. Usually, I see the person first and blow the horn and apply the maximum safe braking force.
Then I call the DS for an ambulance and the authorities and follow all other required company procedures.
I have great sympathy for the friends and relatives of the deceased.
I have no sympathy for the person that was hit. Persons tha are on railroad rights of way in a position to be struck by a train, got what they sought. One does not go walking down the middle of a roadway without inviting being struck by a passing car…one does not go walking down a railroad right of way without inviting being struck by a train.
I came around a corner one day to find a family of four having a barbeque on the tracks. I mean they had the hibatchi going, lawn chairs set up, the whole nine yards. The only thing that saved their lives is that the signal system was down at the time and the train was travelling at restricted speed. After making an emergency application we came to a stop not knowing what or who we had hit or missed. When I got down off of the loco to see who was dead or still alive, the father is giving me this weird look and starts yelling at me. What in the f*** is this train doing here, you almost killed us you dumb ****. This guy was screaming like I had swerved through three lanes of traffic to try and kill him. The sad part is their picnic was set up about 10 feet from a no trespassing sign that they had to walk past to get where they were. The good part is after the incident they had four lawn chairs instead of two and three hibatchi’s instead of one.
The trespassing signs are good ideas, but it doesn’t matter. People are stupid around railroads. And a railroad is something that will kill you for being stupid. Sympathy to the families and friends of the people who get killed, but honestly, what did you expect.
Something else. If people want to feel bad when something like this happens, feel bad for the train crew who was just doing their job and ended up killing someone that day. Feel bad for the engineer and conductor who will relive that moment for the rest of their lives. Feel bad for the mechanical department that has to inspect the engine and wa***he mess from the undercarriage. Don’t feel bad for the person who jumped in front of the train, they had the choice to trespass, the train crew did not have the choice to kill them
Up to this point I thought I had ‘heard it all’ regarding stupidity (especially around railroads), but this is SO stupid I can hardly believe it ! I’m not saying I disbelieve rgemd, I’m just so astounded that any member of a supposedly intelligent species was capable of doing anything so incredibly stupid (and is still alive) !! And to think they actually reproduced! Yikes!
I just want to know how they always manage to get knocked out of their shoes and that the shoes, now a long ways from the corpse, can always be found side by side on the ballast section like somebody just set them down there.
The barbeque story just reminded me of an incident here a while back. Mom, Dad, and baby (in stroller) headed down the tracks to do some berry picking. While Mom and Dad were out in the bushes, they left baby in the stroller up next to the tracks. The train did clip the stroller, but the baby’s injuries were minor…
There are no crossings within earshot of the site of the incident, track speed is 40.
No word on whether Mom & Dad had to change their own diapers when they got home…
Be glad you weren’t in Nawthun Vuhjinya, where the brain-dead morons wear headphones to jog in the street FOUR FEET FROM A PERFECTLY GOOD SIDEWALK!!! If stupidity were money these bozos would make Bill Gates look like a beggar.
i get many reports, but i almost learned the hard way i had fell asleep while waiting for a train but when i heard a RING i got up and… triped on the rail the train was three crossings ahead. if i didn’t get up I’d be dead so yes being at railroads altogeter is dangerous.[xx(][8]
Thanks for all the responses. I’ve heard many times that these kind of things traumatize the crew, regardless of whether it was caused by carelessness or “playing chicken” or whatever.
The stretch of track in question has 10 or 11 round trip Amtrak trains per day, plus a freight or two, plus on weekdays there are several Coaster commuter trains that run between Oceanside and San Diego.
Warning signs do matter, as they can help the railroad’s case if/when these things go to court. The signs along the route are in English and Spanish, as a lot of migrant/undocumented workers/aliens are in the area. It has been explained that many of the aliens come from small towns where “nothing moves very fast” so they’re not used to fast trains. This does not excuse them, just explains their cluelessness.
This incident reminded me of another event that happened over 10 years ago. This happened on the MTA Blue Line that runs between LA and Long Beach. A kind-hearted grandmother was walking to church to help out with a local food kitchen for the poor and homeless. [Start violins now.] She darted across the Blue Line tracks, which were less than a block from her home, and was hit and killed. The Blue Line runs every 10-12-15 minutes all day, and the crossing she used had gates, lights and bells. Much of the right of way is fenced so you can’t jaywalk across it.
The family argued that the signals had failed at the time she crossed the tracks. Luckily (for the MTA anyway) some eyewitnesses disagreed with that story. The family continued to insist that the signals failed [even though the reporter who interviewed them heard trains go by/bells ringing several times during the interview]. This story generated lots of sympathy because of the “gold-hearted, faithful” victim. I even had a friend ask me, only half-joking: “What’s with the Blue Line? You can be standing around, minding your own business, and a train will come along and knock you over”. Huh? This story proves th
The person who gets run into is an unfortunate victim, but the bozo that hit him suffered a preventable system failure - he wasn’t paying attention. It may not be intentional, but it’s no accident.
It’s not that there is no such thing as an accident - it’s just that many of the events we call accidents would be totally preventable, if everyone and everything was doing their “job.” Unforseen failures do occur - a part breaks despite normal care, a person suffers a sudden medical condition - but running into somebody’s back bumper isn’t usually an accident. Just ask the person he was talking to on his cell phone at the time.
There’s probably a reason why in some places, “auto accidents” are often referred to as “motor vehicle collisions.”