You can not make this up. Blumenthal get your own house in order !
http://wtnh.com/2014/04/18/video-close-call-sen-blumenthal-metro-north-presser/
If I may quote that great philosopher, Bugs Bunny, “What a maroon!”
The comments that are found beneath the video say it all: the senator and the people with him ignored the signs that warn people away from the yellow band. Did they think that the warning did not apply to them?
Will not happen but: ---------- If Senator would admit his mistake and tell people they need to be careful around places where trains move then maybe the long term result would be very educational ? Will the video go viral ? Senator should make some aide take an unpaid leave ?
I am surprised that an express train passing a platform where people re standing too close, didn’t blow a horn or ring a bell.
Damn. Darwin denied.
Now now, be nice.
We don’t want anyone killed here. Having the living $#!& scared out of them, that’s another matter. But killed, no.
This is same elected Maroon who claimed a Vietnam tour while never having been there.
Having al those Camera’s aimed at him did not make him any safer !!
You raise at least one good point: who set this thing up to begin with? Any real railroaders present? Like a trainmaster or superintendent or railroad police? Somebody beyond the Senator was as fault.
And as for a warning from the train…I believe they do give a warning when entering a station at speed. But that appears to be way down the platform which could mean it was given at least a quarter mile away and could not be heard by the events at the other end. Plus there were ambient noises of traffic and the common sound of a train blowing its horn. Er, did anybody tell the train crew to watch out for a non passenger event and crowd at the station? Or were they and were told not to blow the horn? We know the general intelligence of our politicos but still, they probably shouldn’t take all the blame for this one.
Both Amtrak and Metro-North have bell and speaker systems for announcing an approaching train - including trains that aren’t scheduled to stop.
If Senators were not exempt from Darwin’s Law, they couldn’t muster a quorum.
To publicize some engineeering tech, I was asked by our in-house photographer to pose standing on the WSOR track to give the tie in to railroad technology.
My response was, “Um, I don’t think this gives the right message.”
Technically speaking, the WSOR trains are not that fast, the crossings are protected by bells and gates, and the train crews sound their horn. Before someone starts up on this, I could have been photographed safely standing on the tracks, although to do that, there probably should have been a lookout in addition to me and the photographer, who were focused (excuse the pun) on getting a good photo.
But . . .
In addtion to being a research engineer and a train enthusiast, as a passenger train advocate I had been afforded to attend a train-riding session organized by UP and Metra through some advocacy connections, where we had “break out sessions” in discussing what Metra does to keep people like me from doing what the photographer wanted to do. Things like writing tickets for substantial fines.
So . . .
Even if we took that picture and got away with it without getting a scolding, a warning, or a ticket and a fine, my thinking was to put such a picture in the College of Engineering Annual Report was setting a very bad example, and especially teachers have a moral, ethical, social, and professional reason not do to something illegal (i.e. trespass on WSOR property, even if it is only to stand briefly in a railroad crossing) that we are going photograph and disseminate copies.
Therefore . . .
The Senator for Connecticut has some ‘splainin’ to do . . .
In conclusion, although the photo op set up was wrong, the Senator was NOT standing on the track, only part way on the very wide yellow warning area, which appears (but I have not measured) to be wider th
What is this treating me as person of diminished intellectual capacity with the capitalized “NOT”? So, he wasn’t standing on a track of a low-speed freight line to which the public has access through gate and warning signal-controlled crossings (which I politely refused to do), he was at a high-level platform on a high-speed electrified passenger line, standing on the edge of that platform where one wrong step and he would be face-down on the tracks, with his back to a train that passed him within inches?
I am fine with the good Senator representing whatever political party he represents, the State that he represents, and for advocating for trains in the manner that he does. I am told by the parent post that he was shooting a video to advocate for train safety, that people treat trains with respect.
If you are to treat trains with respect, a passenger train platform is a place where a person needs to maintain awareness of their surroundings, and for goodness sake stand back from the edge of the platform, yellow line or no yellow line, NEC, ADA, or Metra thickness or whatever thickness. Also, when you are a public figure sending your likeness out to a public forum, whether a research engineer at a public university or a United States Senator, you have a moral, legal, social, and ethical responsibility to set a good example.
And don’t start scolding me as if there is the least bit of difference between the two situations. I refused to do something a photographer asked me to because I have benefited from the Operation Lifesave
My goodness, you must be thin-skinned to assume you are being talked down to or scolded! Not enough Easter candy?
Was the Senator being protected by the Spirit of Sarah Jones, whose story did not end so happily? What is it with media people (film, TV or otherwise) that they believe themselves to be immune to the hazards that face the rest of us in the real world? Think of the consequences if some tiny projection on the train had snagged his coat. What a waste of a perfectly good yellow safety stripe!
Thin skinned goes in both directions.
Furthermore, I spoke to my state of mind, that I post under my name and who I am is widely known to people, and I was expressing that I felt patronized by the capitalized “NOT” when I was being contradicted regarding the seriousness of the situation shown in the video.
Your response (with an exclamation mark added) is not speaking to your state of mind, it is further commentary on your part on what you believe to be my state of mind, making the claim that my response displays the level of immaturity and lack of impulse control of a young child denied holiday treats.
Again, a United States Senator came “this close” to losing his life or being severely injured on account of not taking reasonable precautions on a high-level passenger train platform of a high-speed line. This could be an Operation Lifesaver-style teaching moment, not only to educate the public but to educate ourselves in the enthusiast and advocacy community.
But that message is being diluted, on the NBC Nightly News where the video was presented without interviewing an Operation Lifesaver volunteer or a railroad official regarding safe conduct by passengers on platforms. That message is being diluted by someone posting on this forum that what the Senator did was not that big a deal, and you bet I am thin skinned about something like that.
I offered the comparison to my own personal situation in a photo op for a similar purpose, where I would have followed the photographer’s suggestion and stood on the railroad tracks, were it not for the information disseminated by Operation Lifesaver, both in their literature tables at public events and in my “inner circle” meeting among train advocacy people. Gi
I also bet it was the camera operator who set up the shot, asking the Senator to stand where he was to get the tracks in the picture. This is not an excuse, but unless a person has had the Operation Lifesaver indoctrination, the tendency is to do whatever the camera person tells you to do.
The Operation Lifesaver message needs to get out to the professional photographer, videographer, and video media community,
[quote user=“schlimm”]
In conclusion, although the photo op set up was wrong, the Senator was NOT standing on the track, only part way on the very wide yellow warning area, which appears