Dealing with death on the rails is part of the job at SEPTA

[BaltACD]

Murphy Siding

      I read where the Brightline passenger train in Florida has had over 40 deaths of drivers and pedestrians since July 2017. That's like 1 every 3 weeks. That's got to be really tough for the operating crews. Sad.

Having frequented that area of Florida - most people, other than those that ride the Tri-Rail Commuter system, think ralroads only ran 'back in the day'.  Those that know railroads exist, when they move at all, move at a tortise pace, with the same level of awareness to danger.  Brain Dead and loving it.

26 years ago but just as valid today

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/03/17/Amtrak-Silver-Star-hits-gasoline-tanker/7386732344400/

[Murphy Siding]

      I read where the Brightline passenger train in Florida has had over 40 deaths of drivers and pedestrians since July 2017. That's like 1 every 3 weeks. That's got to be really tough for the operating crews. Sad.

[caldreamer]

I rode in the cab with an engineer friend of mine who worked for the SP many times.  Most of the time he ran commuter trains from San Jose to San Francisco California.  Twice while I was in the cab with him we hit people.  The first time it was a trespasser on a trestle.  For some reason he was pulling his motorcycle over the trestle.  The tracks had a wide left hand curve.  We were doing 60 MPH when we saw him.  The engineer blew his horn and put the throttle in run 0 and applied the brakes.  The guy just looked back. We hit him doing about 50.  He bounced up in the air an we hit him a second time killing him.  I asked John if he was ok and he said NO.  I asked him if he could proceed and he said he had to get his passengers up to San Francisco.  It hit me hard as well as I was as responsible as John, since I was in the cab.

The second time was in San Mateo about half way up the San Francisco peninsula.  A woman went around the gates and we hit her car at 60 MPH since she cut right in front of the train, John had no time to brake.  I grabed a fire extinquisher from inside the engine compartment an when we stopped I jumped off prepared to use the extinquisher.  The fire department had to cut the car off of the coupler which went half way into the car which just bent upwards from the impact.  I did not ask John how he was, since I knew from the last time we hit someone.  It is very tough on the engineers.  John worked as an enginner until retirement for the SP.

[BaltACD]

Paul_D_North_Jr

Audio 13:23 long and a transcript.  A lot of it is about the 'heavy rail' commuter train operations.  A lot of statistics and graphs which are informative, but still a grim story.  

https://whyy.org/episodes/dealing-with-death-on-the-rails-is-part-of-the-job-at-septa/

For those who don't know, SEPTA = SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, plus nearby parts of New Jersey and Delaware. 

- PDN.

The problem afflicts all forms of surface transportation.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Audio 13:23 long and a transcript.  A lot of it is about the 'heavy rail' commuter train operations.  A lot of statistics and graphs which are informative, but still a grim story.  

https://whyy.org/episodes/dealing-with-death-on-the-rails-is-part-of-the-job-at-septa/

For those who don't know, SEPTA = SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, plus nearby parts of New Jersey and Delaware.  

- PDN.