Getting Hit by a Train

[Big_Boy_4005]

The story that I mentioned back near the beginning of this topic turned out to be a suicide. This short recap of the incident was on the website of the local newspaper.

BYLINE:
CREDITLINE: Star Tribune
HEADLINE: Man killed by train in Oakdale

A man was killed in Oakdale early this morning when he lay across the path
of an oncoming train, police said.
An Oakdale officer driving southbound in the 3000 block of Hadley Avenue saw
the man about
1:53 a.m. He was not dressed for the weather and was walking north.
When
the officer returned to check on the man, he began running west along the
railroad
tracks, police said. The officer saw a train approaching and yelled for the
man to stop. The officer didn't follow the man down the tracks, police said.
As the eastbound train approached, the man stopped, looked at the train and
then lay across the tracks, police said. He was killed on impact.
Police later found an unattended and recently parked vehicle in the area.
The man has not been positively identified, but police said he is white and
appeared to be in his early 20s.
Oakdale Police and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's office are handling
the case.

[Anonymous]

I'll add my close call story. Evanston IL had 5 tracks on an embankment, 2 for the El and 3 for the C&NW. I was in 7th grade walking home from school on the tracks when a '400' came down the express track. He blew the horn and we got out of the way. But he stayed on the horn, we thought he was being a jerk. A 90 mph passenger train blowing the horn is so loud you can't hear anything else. As the engine passed our eyes followed and S**T!! An El train was already so close we could see the motorman's eyes bugging out and we were standing on his track. No time to think, we instinctively dove off the embankment. Somehow I wound up with my face inches from the rail. The motorman slammed on the brakes and the wheels were locked up. Every wheel that passed showered me with hot sparks like they were 700 pound grinding wheels. The overhang of the train was above me and I didn't dare move so I got showered by the whole train.

That guy never walked home with me after that. I wonder now if this flatted spotted the wheels and cost the El a lot of money to true

[Anonymous]

Some are accidents, many are suicides. Sad. But the rest are stupidity.

Living in southern California, I have seen a lot of it!!!! And even if it is 10:20 PM, here I go:

For many years in the 20th century, many people had a great respect for trains, and many of them enjoyed stopping to see a SOO line local pass with a 4-6-2. But today, all too many people view anything keeping them from where they want to be as an unacceptable imposition, ignoring the fact that the cell phone in their right hand and the coffee in their left both probably traveled by the thing they are trying to race to the crossing. Being a railfan, I don't have to worry about resisting urges to beat a train to a crossing: I don't get them--I like to slow down and watch, even if it's just a light rail car. And I don't go again until the arms are fully up and the lights have stopped flashing--mostly because I hope another train is just around the corner. But aside from other railfans, most people just rip through the crossing, regarding the bumps from the tracks as an annoyance to their lifes. They drive around in their automobiles which are gigantic in the realm of cars--thinking that the DASH-9 around the corner has the same braking capability as they do, and that it will yield to them, and that if it hits them it will be a small dent which the railroad will pay for; all three of which are incredibly false! I see people race trains through crossings on foot. THESE PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS. I'd like to turn them into one thirteenth of a hamburger pickle! And this gives rise to my ultimate solution to keep people from racing trains to crossings:

Make everyone a railfan. They will be reluctant to start moving again after the train goes by!

But short of that, it really amazes me what stupid things people can do. And then there are the drivers stupid enough to stop on a crossing when they come to a red light. These people are increscently amazing. If only we could have a few doubleheading Big Boys here in southern California to shake the ground as they pass, and teach people a little respect for railways.

Of course the root of all this is that railways are deamed perpetually "uncool" in today's society, where what is "in" becomes "out" fifteen seconds before it was "in" in the first place! All that most of the stupid people hit by trains care about is what is "cool," and unfortunately obeying crossing arms and staying alive is not, much less enjoying the spectacle which is the American railroad. Case in point: we had to put crossing arms on the wrong side of the street because people were driving around the existing ones!!!!

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings,
Daniel

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kevinstheRRman

Yeah, But i like the Quarter pounder Example.

Of course, if you were hit by a train you would look like a Quarter Pounder too. All ground up with lots of ketchup...

LC

[ironhorseman]

After much searching I found the infamous Downers Grove video on the interent yesterday, but I don't feel that the website is appropriate enough to link to here. It contains other videos of people getting killed and other vulger and obscene conduct.

But I watched it yesterday over and over again. The clip provided is only 6 seconds and I'm about to conclude that the girl that got hit was not entirely at fault (but don't misunderstand, the train was NOT AT ALL at fault) and here's my reason why. I remember the scene from TV where they showed about 30-45 seconds of the tape. People rushing across the tracks (on foot) as the bells were ringing, lights flasing, train horn blowing. On the side of the tracks the camera is on is a green Burlington Northern F-unit passenger train stopped just short of the crossing. The train that hits the girl is also the same kind. So the view to the left of the oncoming train is blocked. What appears to be a woman carrying some sort of bag in both arms puts a foot on the rail, looks left, sees the train, then turns back to wait from where she came from. Seconds later what appears to be a man in a gray trench coat starts across (from the side of the tracks the camera is on) and the girl, a foot shorter than him (probably teenager or older) is following on his right just slightly behind him. The man gets the track the speeding train is on, looks left, then stops. The girl never looked both ways, then man on her left was blocking her view. She appeared to be following his lead. But the man never made any attempt to grab this girl's arm or body to stop her. He looked left and turned around to his left. In the 1 second it took him to move this direction and avoid being hit the girl stepped in front of the train, looked left, and was caught by the wheels of the locomotive between her ankles and shins and was thrown toward the feet of the camera or the legs of the camera tripod, whatever the case, knocking the camera over, the last couple frames are a blur. The is an obvious red streak at the bottom of the film frames before the camera is knocked over. From the looks of it I'll guess the man had know idea this girl was behind him and didn't know she was hit until well after her body knocked the camera over, many seconds later.

Why did she do this? Why did she follow this man? Did she feel safer crossing the tracks with someone? Did she think she could make it? Take a psychology class and figure it out because I can't answer those questions. Human rationale is a strange thing. Think how wide a standard guage track is. 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. How fast can you cross a distance of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches? It's just "over there." If I can just make it this small distance it won't take very long and that train is oh so far off. I'll tell you 4 feet 8 1/2 inches and 6 seconds can change your life in an instant. What was it that couldn't wait 6 seconds for the train to reach the crossing? What was it that couldn't wait the 60 seconds for the train to clear the crossing? It's unfortunate what happend to her. It's also unfortunate no one tried to stop those two from going across. She didn't see the train coming because the other stopped train blocked the view and the man blocked her view, but she knew the lights and bells and horns were going.

I don't get any thrill describing the account but I think that maybe a video or description this shocking should be told so that others won't do it. People get mad that trains make them late but they don't see it as a perfect excuse to be late, because odds are they're going somewhere they don't want to be (i.e. work, school, the doctor, etc.) Many times at one place I used to work people came in late because the train made them late, but what's the first thought on their mind when they get to work? "How soon can I leave?"

Just slow down and wait. Don't be selfish. Some people think about themselves and how inconvienced they are by trains and some don't care that they might get killed racing the train. But they need to think about those who care about them and think how their friends and family will feel if they got a call saying their loved one was killed by a train.

[Anonymous]

I remember reading a few years ago about students at Arizona State University playing a new game of chicken with trains. The rail line runs within a few blocks of the University and a half block of Mill Avenue, where all the partying used to go on. (Maybe it still does.) Anyway, the gist of the game was to hang out on the main line with the winner being the one who stayed on the tracks the longest before the train actually got there. I can't imagine the heart attacks that caused for the crews of the SP freights running through town... but I do know that at least one kid was killed (I guess he won the game). Sometimes you have to think a college education is wasted on some people... but then again, it proves that Darwin's Theory is alive and well....
I also remember the station agent in my home town in Connecticut back in the 60's talking about suicide by train a lot.

Erik

[oubliette]

"And suicide by train seems to be on the rise."

[xx(] This is true here in the UK. What people forget though is that besides the tragedy for the victims family and train crew who have to live with this, the poor depot staff have to deal with this by cleaning up the mess.

We recently had a locomotive on the depot whereby a woman jumped off the station platform into the front of a speeding 75mph passenger train. The impact severely dented the front of the loco, there was blood and entrails over the front of the loco. Apologies for graphic details but all this has to be cleaned off by someone. The worse case is if they go under the wheels, the destruction of the human torso is so severe.

Its bad enough having to clean cattle etc from underneath and the smell is unbelievable. Its not a pretty site to clean pieces of flesh from beneath locomotives but unfortunately someone has to do it. An incident such as the above one cause much work for many people. The driver was interviewed by the police.....not a lot he can do to avoid the impact. The police attend the site of incident and also came to look at the locomotive. The locomotive has to have a brake test to see if it was at fault - I kid you not.

Its unfortunate that this is what railroads across the globe have to deal with. Some are purely accidents but many are suicides. Sad but true.

Cheers

Rory

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by emory

QUOTE: Originally posted by mbartel

A person getting hit by a train is like smacking a fly with a fly swatter

Unfortunately it is, but the crew still has to live with the consequences even though they were not at fault. And suicide by train seems to be on the rise.

I read that topic too!
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12825

I must say that the content of that topic is frighteningly graphic, but not totally inappropriate for this forum. However, we should keep in mind that some of the members here are not adults.

On the other hand messages that strong, may save lives.

Perhaps if the young man, who I refered to earlier in this topic, had read this topic or that one he would still be alive today.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mbartel

A person getting hit by a train is like smacking a fly with a fly swatter

Unfortunately it is, but the crew still has to live with the consequences even though they were not at fault. And suicide by train seems to be on the rise.

[Anonymous]

A person getting hit by a train is like smacking a fly with a fly swatter

[Big_Boy_4005]

I'm afraid there are still stupid people out there, though their numbers get smaller every day.

Just last night, less than 10 miles from my house, along the old route of the 400's, another "Quarter Pounder" became cheese. Appearently he was on foot until the train caught up to him.

I guess some people just don't get it, until THEY GET IT!!!

[Anonymous]

Thank You for the Info

[ironhorseman]

I saw the Downer's Grove clip on the internet, maybe 3-4 years ago now? The first time I saw was on TV where it stops the last fram before impact. I wasn't looking for it on the internet but just happened across it when I was at a school computer so didn't save the link, but it was shown in it's entirety. The little girl's body is tossed like a rag doll and hits the camera. Wasn't the engine a BN F-unit? And the same website had other goof-balls trying to beat the train. One guy on a bicycle goes through after the gates are down and he smiles and waves at the camera.

And speaking of beer cans and hamburger why not combine both analogies? Hamburger INSIDE a beer can. The meat is the person, the can is the car. The results are the same. And go ahead and use beer can because arn't more automobile wrecks caused by someone under the influence?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
The show "Real TV" did a bit with Operation Lifesaver where they mounted cameras inside a school bus and ran two locomotives through it. Pretty scary pictures.

I saw that episode just the other day. The locomotive looks like superman going through those veichles.

[dekemd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

[
It's probably too bad that the clip I've seen of the Downers Grove incident stops just BEFORE the impact. Gory as it would be, some people just need to see the aftermath, too. Otherwise you've left to hope that she stopped at just the last moment and nothing bad happened after all.

I don't have the link anymore but the full clip is on the internet somewhere. It's not a pretty picture.

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