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56 year old man struck and killed by train.

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Posted by SchemerBob on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 4:09 PM

It's a sad story, but I just do not realize why he was walking on the tracks. Forgive me, but how can people be so DUMB! One sure-fire way to get yourself killed is to walk on the railroad tracks. Operation Lifesaver says "Always expect a train." Well of course. If there were no trains, most likely the tracks would not even be there.

Still, it's sad for the family and the train crew who have to live with this now. The moral of this story is to not walk on railroad tracks. PERIOD!

Long live the BNSF .... AND its paint scheme. SchemerBob
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Posted by Railfan1 on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 3:23 PM
"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"
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Posted by penncentral2002 on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 9:51 AM
 KCSfan wrote:

It's a little early to be talking about lawsuits, personal responsibility, etc. in thes forums. Wait until the inquest derermines if it's an accident, a suicide, drug and/or alcohol involvement, etc. In the meantime it's a most regrettable death and is causing some family and the train crew a great deal of grief and anguish. Keep us posted Lance on what tomorrows paper says when they publish the "complete story".

Mark 

Exactly - we don't have enough information and often the news reports don't provide adequate info to see what happened.  It just annoys me to see people who have little understanding of the legal system (and that's not an insult, the tort law system and lawsuits are way more complicated than most people realize and even many lawyers have difficulty in understanding that the tort system is about deterrence and preventing accidents rather than compensation) have knee jerk anti-lawsuit reactions when they don't have the full story.

Zack http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/
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Posted by Railfan1 on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 5:38 AM
 KCSfan wrote:
  Keep us posted Lance on what tomorrows paper says when they publish the "complete story".

 

I'll let you know as soon as I get the paper.

"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"
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Posted by tree68 on Monday, January 29, 2007 9:30 PM
For the record - I'm not speaking to this incident - just in generalist terms. 

LarryWhistling
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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, January 29, 2007 8:50 PM

It's a little early to be talking about lawsuits, personal responsibility, etc. in thes forums. Wait until the inquest derermines if it's an accident, a suicide, drug and/or alcohol involvement, etc. In the meantime it's a most regrettable death and is causing some family and the train crew a great deal of grief and anguish. Keep us posted Lance on what tomorrows paper says when they publish the "complete story".

Mark 

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, January 29, 2007 6:38 PM

I see his point - A family refusing to admit that Uncle Whatshisname could have done anything as irresponsible as walking on the tracks tries to deflect said responsiblity by pointing out (often by way of a lawsuit) that the railroad was to blame because they didn't do this, and that, and something else.

I will disagree with the "accidents happen" concept.  Any time there is a decision involved, there is a chance to prevent an incident.  Sometimes it takes a series of bad decisions to bring about the end event, and changing only one of them would prevent it from happening.

About the only type of incident that can truly be called an accident is one where something unforeseen happens (ie, something fails unexpectedly).

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by penncentral2002 on Monday, January 29, 2007 6:30 PM
 Datafever wrote:
 penncentral2002 wrote:

On another note, it never fails to fill me with a mixture of horror and humor when someone responds to every one of these incidents with an anti-lawsuit rant, never once seeing the ironic contradiction in their calls for responsibilty and anti-lawsuit/lawyer views.

Ummm... You've lost me.  Are you saying that it is a contradiction to be for personal responsibility and against lawsuits that result from the lack of personal responsibility?

I must be missing something.  Question [?]

You are - corporate responsibility is part of personal responsibility.  Tort law and lawsuits promote responsibility by allocating blame for an injury and deterring irresponsible actions by plaintiffs and defendants.

Zack http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/
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Posted by Nescopeck Tower PRR on Monday, January 29, 2007 6:18 PM
Hey CP 2816, where in the accident write up does someone get blamed for this mans death.  As long as there are humans, there will be accidents.  You have no idea what this man may have been thinking about at the time.  There is not one of us, RAILFANS included, who hasn't been paying attention at one time or another while near the tracks, and I'm sure you are included, I admit I've been caught off guard already and I blame myself fo letting it happen.  So do the best you can, to prevent this from happening to yourself or friends.
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Posted by Datafever on Monday, January 29, 2007 6:01 PM
 penncentral2002 wrote:

On another note, it never fails to fill me with a mixture of horror and humor when someone responds to every one of these incidents with an anti-lawsuit rant, never once seeing the ironic contradiction in their calls for responsibilty and anti-lawsuit/lawyer views.

Ummm... You've lost me.  Are you saying that it is a contradiction to be for personal responsibility and against lawsuits that result from the lack of personal responsibility?

I must be missing something.  Question [?]

"I'm sittin' in a railway station, Got a ticket for my destination..."
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Posted by penncentral2002 on Monday, January 29, 2007 5:54 PM
 CANADIANPACIFIC2816 wrote:

It's always sad when something like this happens.Sad [:(] But I think we will continue to see people who lack common sense and good judgement, get themselves killed while trespassing on railroad property. If I were to have done this and gotten myself killed, it would be my own fault and no one else's. We've got too many people in this country who don't seem to want to take responsibility for their own actions, and how many ridiculous lawsuits are filed as a direct result?Banged Head [banghead]

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

Sad case.  Almost wonder if he was comitting suicide

On another note, it never fails to fill me with a mixture of horror and humor when someone responds to every one of these incidents with an anti-lawsuit rant, never once seeing the ironic contradiction in their calls for responsibilty and anti-lawsuit/lawyer views.

Zack http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/
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Posted by CANADIANPACIFIC2816 on Monday, January 29, 2007 5:31 PM

It's always sad when something like this happens.Sad [:(] But I think we will continue to see people who lack common sense and good judgement, get themselves killed while trespassing on railroad property. If I were to have done this and gotten myself killed, it would be my own fault and no one else's. We've got too many people in this country who don't seem to want to take responsibility for their own actions, and how many ridiculous lawsuits are filed as a direct result?Banged Head [banghead]

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

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Posted by Railfan1 on Monday, January 29, 2007 4:49 PM
On a side note, this was on NS's piedmont division line.
"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"
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Posted by Railfan1 on Monday, January 29, 2007 4:48 PM
I am starting to doubt it. Sad [:(]
"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"
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Posted by Datafever on Monday, January 29, 2007 3:46 PM
Will people never learn.  Disapprove [V]
"I'm sittin' in a railway station, Got a ticket for my destination..."
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56 year old man struck and killed by train.
Posted by Railfan1 on Monday, January 29, 2007 3:39 PM

This was about 4 miles from where I usually watch trains. There were several trains backed up (very unusual for a Sunday afternoon.). Very sad story indeed. I feel for the family and the locomotive crew.

 http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/breaking_news/02breakingnews.txt

"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"

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