Here in PA (about 25 miles from where Im at) a little girl was killed by a CSX Train after her mother and herself were seperated from her dad on a fishing trip. They were trying to cross 3 tracks, and one of the trains were stopped. The next train on the middle track hit the little girl and killed her, and dragged the mom a short distance. The mom is in critical condition. It was her birthday and its a real sad story. My wife works with a lady that taugt that little girl. Its sad when you read about these kind of stories all the time.
Terrible! How sad.
I’m sure if the mom lives that she will not be able to forgive her own ignorance. Still, her husband would very much like to have the mother “back”, if at all possible. What a tough day for all involved.
Yes terrible but the girl did not get killed by the CSX train , she got killed by ignorance of her parents, who promoted and showed the kids how to tespass on an active railroad.
That train was there when it was suppose to be there, the family wes not.
Let the one of us who has not walked across railroad tracks throw the first stone.
Given all the ignorant things I have done in my life, I think I have a 30% chance of dying as a result of some dumb thing I do. Accordingly, I can’t be too hard on people who do dumb things.
That having been said, obviously, the CSX crew was not to blame, and it has got to be just as hard on them. I couldn’t imagine a “day at the office” resulting in the death of a little girl. That would be so hard.
Gabe
Incidents like this are the most difficult for train crews.
When we hit a suicide or someone who drove around the gates, there is not too much sympathy for the person struck, although the adrenaline that flows assures us that each event is burned into our minds, available for unwanted recall at anytime.
However, when the victim is a child that was not old enough to know better, or had parents that were not smart enought to educate them, the emotional distress to the crew is immense.
I once hit a kid who was playing chicken in front of my train. Just before I hit him, I got a good look at him. He looked so much like my nephew, that I was so upset that could barely walk back to the point of impact. The only thing I kept telling myself was that I was in Chicago, and my nephew lived in Racine, so I mostly knew it couldn’t have been him…but until I made it back to the scene and could see what was left of the victim up close, I wasn’t completely sure that it was not my nephew. The sick feeling that I had until I made the positive identification was something I would only wish on my worst enemy.
Years ago my father hit the car of the local family doctor, luckily he was not too badly hurt and recovered.
DR. was old school, house calls, gruff, always in a hurry and thought he could beat the train at the crossing (20-30 mph train speed).
truly a sad story. man why can’t parents and everyone else use better judgment? i bet the lights were flashing and the gates were down. if that were the case with me, i would stay stopped there. the people behind me can honk their horns all they want. i’m not moving.
if i were the train crew, i would probably still be in shock and horror today. i have heard stories about what crews have to go through when the train they’re operating strikes an ignorant moron on the tracks. even if they know they aren’t at fault, some of them still feel like they were. it’s hard i’m sure.
poor kid…poor crew. my thoughts go out to them both [:(]
Ugh! I hate stories like this…
If your going to trespass, how hard is it to at least look both ways? You wouldnt run across a street without looking, but of course people do that all the time.
I have the sneaking suspiction the Mom saw the train coming, and not wanting to wait, knowingly sprinted out with the kid in tow in front of it hoping to beat it, and we see the results. Geez, I just dont get it…
I wonder if she would have done this if it was a freeway interstate .
I smell a lawsuit brewing in the wake of this terrible accident.
For what, tresspassing?
People seem to find an excuse to sue in any scenario. Hot McDonald’s coffee anyone??
Lord Atmo,
Its not so much that we feel at fault, its just that we have the memories of the incident. We know we cannot stop; we know there is nothing we can do about it. But we FEEL the anguish of the soon-to-be victim, ESPECIALLY if they happen to look up at you before they are hit, and you see the absolute horror on their faces–those are images that stay with you forever.
Frequently, there are a number of seconds between the time you realize you are going to hit someone (or something). During those very long few seconds, all you can do is watch and wait for the impact…then you hear the muffled thud, and you know a life just ended at the front of your locomotive. Then you go home and hug your wife and kids extra hard.
I will not bore the forum with too much of this argument again, but as an attorney, the hot McDonalds coffee doesn’t bother me at all–although I thought the damages were a bit excessive. If some restaurant hands you–while you are driving no less–coffee capable of giving you third degree burns and you spill it in your lap, accidentally, please come see me.
This is a completely different case–namely, businesses have a duty to attempt to prevent reasonably foreseeable injuries to their customers; CSX has little if any duty to a tresspasser, and it is far from apparent what it could have done to prevent the injury. Were the McDonalds customer a tresspasser or had McDonals warned the customer that the coffee could give 3rd-degree burns, we would have never heard of this case.
And before you say, everyone should know coffee is hot. I am shocked to learn that the coffee could be so hot as to give 3rd degree burns, and I would be equally shocked if someone from McDonals management did not understand that their coffee, which is so hot that it can give 3rd degree burns, would be spilled in the lap of a driver prior to this lawsuit.
I will never cry for McDonalds about this case.
Gabe
Gabe
Wow, let’s blame the judicial system, too, while we are assigning “ignorance.”
These threads irritate me no end, because posters inevitably take the occurrence of every tragedy – and they are tragedies – to offer their favorite epithet – “idiots,” “ignorant” – or their favorite dislike – “lawyers,” “lawsuits,” “the legal system” – on the back of someone else’s profound loss. I’ve been to a number of rail crossing accidents. I’ve known the crew on every one of them. Not pretty either way. And you don’t stand there announcing to the family that has arrived that their dead son was an “idiot,” or that “the lawyers will be arriving shortly.” Not if you have an ounce of compassion, and a shred of intelligence.
There are, indeed, idiots all over the place. Perhaps some cross railroad tracks. Some post on internet forums.
Here’s the McDonald’s case:
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car when she was severely burned by McDonalds’ coffee in February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed
the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup.
What a terrible tragedy.
The first thing that came to mind in regards to trespassing on RR property and getting killed, and then a lawsuit being filed against the RR was the kid who was killed on LIRR property when he was trying to tag their property. Now the parents want to sue because their son was killed while trespassing? Do railroads have a larger responsibility to prevent these types of accidents?
Maybe the family is going to HATE trains now, maybe even have a mental trauma with them…? I know a train would never harm me, I am a friend of the train. I feel sorry for the girl and family.
[quote user=“MichaelSol”]
Wow, let’s blame the judicial system, too, while we are assigning “ignorance.”
These threads irritate me no end, because posters inevitably take the occurrence of every tragedy – and they are tragedies – to offer their favorite epithet – “idiots,” “ignorant” – or their favorite dislike – “lawyers,” “lawsuits,” “the legal system” – on the back of someone else’s profound loss. I’ve been to a number of rail crossing accidents. I’ve known the crew on every one of them. Not pretty either way. And you don’t stand there announcing to the family that has arrived that their dead son was an “idiot,” or that “the lawyers will be arriving shortly.” Not if you have an ounce of compassion, and a shred of intelligence.
There are, indeed, idiots all over the place. Perhaps some cross railroad tracks. Some post on internet forums.
Here’s the McDonald’s case:
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car when she was severely burned by McDonalds’ coffee in February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed
the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the p
[quote user=“csmith9474”]
The first thing that came to mind in regards to trespassing on RR property and getting killed, and then a lawsuit being filed against the RR was the kid who was killed on LIRR property when he was trying to tag their property. Now the parents want to sue because their son was killed while trespassing? Do railroads have a larger responsibility to prevent these types of accidents?<
Corporate arrogance has nothing to due with it. McDonalds has a general rule that it does not settle cases, in order to cut down on the “ambulance chasers” from bringing cases that have way of winning, but looking for a quick settelment.
Bert