I was going to post this on the graffiti thread, but it’s gotten so big that I thought it would be best to post it as a new one.
Bob Boudreau
From CBC news (Canada)
"Train kills man painting graffiti on boxcar
Last Updated Wed, 02 Feb 2005 13:28:17
TORONTO - An 18-year-old man was hit and killed by a train Tuesday evening as he spray-painted a boxcar in the west end of Toronto.
Police said the man was hit by a passing train around 9:45 p.m. as he and
two friends painted a boxcar parked on a track near Dupont and Christie
streets.
The train that hit him was travelling at about 40 km/h on the track parallel
to the one where the man was painting, police said.
The graffiti artist died in an ambulance en route to hospital.
I think that the man’s reason for being near the tracks may tend to obscure the importance of this story. He should never have been near potentially live tracks, period. Real trains are very unforgiving, and being trapped between tracks with a moving train, is one of the most dangerous situations in railroading. People easily become dizzy from the motion close to them, and if they fall the wrong way, party over. All of the legal aspects aside, this guy is up for a Darwin Award, but he probably won’t win that either.
I’m sorry to hear this another tragic event. you think events like this would send a message to people he truly payed the price for his act of vandalism.
I am tempted to say he got what he deserved, but in my mind vandalism isn’t that big of a crime.
Something else I have always wondered, If you did get caught between two trains, and there wasn’t much room, what would be the best thing to do? I have always thought it would be good to lie on your stomach. Anybody know the best answer?
I was always taught that if you do the wrong kind of things then more than likely the wrong kind of things will happen. Loss of life is surely tragic, and I wouldn’t necessarily call an 18 year old a “man”. Down here when we see 18 year olds painting graffiti on trains they are most likely “gang members”. Our prisons are full of them. I wonder who was responsible for his whereabouts?
I believe that is what railroad employees are taught to do if they become dizzy in that situation. Focus on the ground and drop straight down, to wait it out.
If you get a chance to look at parallel tracks with trains on them, from a safe location, such as an overpass, you will see that there is a fair amount of room for a person to stand. It is when one or both trains are moving that the real trouble comes.
Man that is really sad. I know what he was doing was wrong but the little dude did not need to die for it. If he was committing a robbery or burglary I would be like good. In this case I feel bad for the family. That is awful. Now if he was playing chicken I would also feel a little bit different to this, but he was not planning on dying that night. Too bad.
Could be worse, out here we get these idiots dangling from there toes trying to scrawl there tag onto bridge overpasses, occasionally one falls onto the freeway, by the time the ambulance or the cops arrive, they need shovels to pick up the guy…
The tragedy is that the poor engineer has to live with the fact that he killed someone, even though it wasn’t his fault. The punishment for grafitti shouldn’t be death, but too often the punishment for stupidity is !
The main rule for mutilating railway equipment is: never step back to admire your work. I wonder why theses talented morons haven’t targetted airports and started to sign 737’s? Apparently now their new projects are entering parking structures and tagging indiviual automobiles, with vans being the ultimate target, my insurance agent has 3 claims on graffitti.
it would have been better if that worthless gang member had been decapitated by the train and his family had to come out and clean up his body parts, along with the graffiti.
There are laws on the books here in California that when a criminal is killed in the commission of a crime, his accomplices (sp?) are tried for manslaughter for their part in the commission of the crime. This is true for armed robbery, but I am not sure if this applies in cases where the crime is vandalism. If so, it could lead to a reduction in the amount of vandalism being committed if it were to receive enough publicity. I am not sure what the laws are in Canada, but there are places in SoCal where I would love to see some of these guys get locked up for what they do to public (and often private) property. There are places around L.A. where the sound walls along the freeways get repainted (by vandals) nightly. There is nothing artistic about vandalism. It is a crime, pure and simple. If it were art, it would be on canvas (or some similarly suitable medium). At least that’s my opinion.