http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/04/06/13-passengers-hurt-when-metrolink-train-collides-with-truck-in-san-fernando
"Pummeled"? That's not a verb I recall having been used for a railroad accident before. (Hopefully I won't have to see it used again... ;-} )
Overmod "Pummeled"? That's not a verb I recall having been used for a railroad accident before. (Hopefully I won't have to see it used again... ;-} )
The reporter learned a new word (by playing Scrabble?) and just had to use it, even though it's completely inappropriate, I'll bet the locomotive didn't chase the truck, striking it repeatedly...
I'll be watching for the excuse - er - explanation the driver gives. Hopefully, it won't require an interpreter.
Chuck
Well...the truck driver is ok...just wouldn't talk to the media. And the passengers, they are all ok I guess, the Medics went through the train and checked everyone out. So that leaves the train crew...who were undoubtedly standing or walking at the time of the "pummeling" . And, oh, yeah, the engineer. No mention of him...but, that's ok, he was driving the choo choo....or maybe the reporter thinks the governor of California runs trains from his Lionel transformer in his den.
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The truck was pummelled by the train? Man, that must have been one ANGRY train! Now I suppose someone on the Left Coast is going to propose mandatory anger management classes for commuter trains in addition to PTC installation. BAAAAAAD TRAIN!
Has someone signed the dump truck up for psychiatic counseling to deal with the stress of being pummelled?
"Oh tempora, oh mores!"
To pummel is to repeatedly hit, strike or punch. Did the train hit the truck, back up, and then come and hit it again? And again and again? That's what the news report says.
If I had to speculate -- this is another example of why thesauri should not be sold to the general public, let alone those witless about semantic nuance, or looking for a 'colorful' phrase they think is a synonym for a word or expression that they, or others, have used before.
Also, once again, as with so many others, the narrative gives the impression that the poor dump truck was just going along when the train hit it -- has to be Metrolink's fault for aggression, right?
[expletives deleted on a family forum]
And again not a word about the engineer!
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