Train kills man painting graffiti on boxcar

[Anonymous]

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.

His name has not been released."

Written by CBC News Online staff

[cheese3]

thats what you get for vandalism

[Big_Boy_4005]

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.

[darkstar974]

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.

Dark

[Anonymous]

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?

Morgan

[Anonymous]

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?

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RCMPMan

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?

Morgan

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[vsmith]

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...

[Jetrock]

Natural selection at work!

[Anonymous]

ohh my

[Train1725]

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 !

[mustanggt]

QUOTE: thats what you get for vandalism

[quoteNatural selection at work!]

[tatans]

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.

[garr]

tatans,

Where's the parking decks the graffiti "artists" are using--my '96 Explorer needs some new paint in spots!

If there is a graffiti "artist" big enough to tag a 737 I'm not messing with him--those fuselages are rather high in the air compared to a boxcar.

Death seems like a severe punishment for tagging, but I guess the gene pool has been saved in some morbid way.

Jay

[Anonymous]

At least , if he was a gang member, we won't have to support him in jail for the rest of his life.

[Anonymous]

These forums are better than TV!

First a suicide Jeeper, now Taggers!

My namesake 4005 would not want to be in the gantlet ( or is it gaunlet ? ) between two trains.

[espeefoamer]

Taggers should never step back onto an adjacent track to admire their work.

[Anonymous]

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.

but that's just my opinion.....

[Anonymous]

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.

[mustanggt]

QUOTE: 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

No.

[bruce22]

I am dissapointed that there is very little compassion in most of the replies, It was only paint and some of the graffics are quite admirable. Also don't lay any guilt on anyone replying , a life was lost. Think of what you would feel if it was your son.

[ben10ben]

As sad as this event is, I hope that it will serve as a future deterant for anyone considering vandalizing a train car if they see that this could happen. I'm sure that it won't happen, but there's always a possibity.

By the way, I hope that his parents don't turn around and sue the railroad for failing to improperly secure that stretch of track, or not making it known that it was an active track, or some other such stupid scenario. Without knowing much of anything about Canada's legal system(although I certainly don't know that much about the US), I don't know what the results of such a suit would be.

[trolleyboy]

Ben10 they would likely lose most if not all mainline areas are fenced off and posted WARNING HIGH SPEED TRAINS most likely mom and dad will try however. It is unfortunate but things like this happen all to frequently.There would also be trespassing signs up in these areas as well and CN police do take a dim view of trespassers and taggers but having said that they are few and far between. Rob

[Anonymous]

I, too, was saddened by the lack of compassion in this thread.

Some paint on a piece of property Vs. a man's life.

This could very well have been a person with a bad start in life waiting to blossom into something great. It's a terrible tragedy.

[Jetrock]

No, I really don't have a lot of sympathy. If this particular man's life was all that worth living, he probably would have had something better to do than vandalize a railroad car.

In times before the age when Americans decided we had to make the entire planet baby-safe, people were less insulated from the negative effects of their bad choices. Life was, and frankly, still is, dangerous, and trains are inherently dangerous objects. People get killed in their proximity due to accident or carelessness, and I cannot fathom why anyone would think that they are somehow immune to this danger.

In India, trains are so crowded that commuters sit on the roof or hang outside of the cars via the windows. A few fall off and die every single day. That's a tragedy--they are just folks trying to get to work, who even paid for their tickets. A dozen or so folks died on the Metra last week for the same reason--and that's a tragedy too. But is the Darwin Award candidate who got run over by a freight train because he was standing on the tracks with his cellphone on one ear and his finger in the other ear to block out the sound of the approaching train's horn a tragedy? Or is it Darwin at work?

In the natural world, animals die all the time. But one animal's tragedy is another's success--a deer brought down by wolves is a tragedy to the deer, a triumph to the wolves. A tagger killed by his stupidity is a tragedy to the tagger's family, and a triumph to a society where stupidity is not rewarded.

I don't buy the whole "What if he was the next Mother Theresa?" argument at all--statistically speaking, the guy was just as likely to be the next Josef Stalin. I figure that of the folks who die due to accident, stupidity and other causes, the lost Stalins and lost Mother Theresas are probably going to be about equal, maintaining a balance of sorts.

[Anonymous]

Just nature's way of adding a little chlorine to the gene pool.

[TBat55]

He DIED for a crime that didn't really hurt anybody. Visual garbage sometimes, but some people have houses, yards, maybe their own body that's just as bad on the eyes.

It's a free country, he was trying to express his opinion. Just like this forum. And this forum occasionally has it's own vandals who paint obnoxious replies to topics. But they don't die for it, and I can choose to ignore them.

[pedromorgan]

"express his opinion"??? how can vandilism be expressing any opinion whatsoever. it is just pointless vandalism. there is no opinion there to express. people who do that ar not inteligent enough to have an opinion. london has been plagued these last few years buy a guy who goes around spraying "TOX04" (or what ever the year happens to be) how is that expressing any opinion.
the grafiti artists who have an opinion are intelligant enough to use permitted areas where they can spray to their harts content. and not on something that has to be seen buy everyone.

it is not art-it's an eyesaw.

Peter

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bruce22

I am dissapointed that there is very little compassion in most of the replies, It was only paint and some of the graffics are quite admirable. Also don't lay any guilt on anyone replying , a life was lost. Think of what you would feel if it was your son.

Until they got married and moved out I knew where my sons were and who they were with. If they didn't behave, they got paddled. Now at the ages of 39 and 42 they still rspect you and call you sir and ma'am. They paddle their kids too. Notice I said paddle and not beat.

One lady in NYC was upset because the police jailed her son for tagging a postal van and her comment was "At least he wasn't out holding someone up". WHAT KIND OF PARENT IS THAT?

QUOTE: This could very well have been a person with a bad start in life waiting to blossom into something great. It's a terrible tragedy. CARRFan

Our problem is we always want to think that people will change for the better - THEY DON'T. I have a friend that works for the sherrif's dept and he said he see the same people all the time because when they get out, they're going to come right back but usually for something bigger.

As the twig is bent, so grows the tree - I don't know who penned it, he was smarter then me.

Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob