Apparent freak accident at this Amtrak station to passenger who had just got off the train.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/04/14/train-death-east-lansing/100473676/
http://www.wilx.com/content/news/Woman-found-underneath-train-418452073.html
Sad and strange. This came to mind, however:
Throw Momma from the Train.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Brings new meaning to the phrase "mind the gap".
Looking at google maps and the photo views of the station show a nice new building but no platforms. Thenwent to youtube and found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz5lUbnPxcw&t=8s which shows the platform, and the crew using a steb box. Wonder if there is a platform for the other (WB) track or if all passenger trains use the south track. Hard to see what could have caused the lady to fall under the train unless she stayed on the platform after disenbarking from the train. This line from the post may give a clue, Police believe she had been drinking. It appeared from the video that most passengers went to the station after getting off with their luggage. It was raining and that might have hastened that. But wonder what the train crew saw, and after picking up the step box, did they give a highball?
It is a new building, recently opened, it combines AMtrak and Bus stations and is a stop for city buses as well. Right across the street is Michigan State University. No platforms, just the paved ground level apron. That video is Eastbound arriving from CHicago, but westboud uses the same track. No one has to walk across the near track to the far track.
On Google Earth there appear to be 3 pedestrian crossings from the platform, across the EB track, to the edge of the WB track. The crossings/short platforms are at 85' spacings, so it seems they were made for boarding trains on the far track, although as previously indicated, they apparently are not used. They are located in the area of the old station.
Those have been there for years, though no platforms extend from them along that track. The building is now recently gone, the under-construction one to the left is now the terminal. Never seen the crossovers used. I came here for college in 1965, and stayed. Home football games are a big deal here, and in older times trains were more popular for travel. And the beginning and end of semesters are also huge bursts of traffic. Possibly special trains used them. They didn't build them for nothing. There used to be more passenger traffic, now it is just one Amtrak a day each way.
It is a busy double track, and right there at a busy four lane street with gates and traffic signals. We do occasionally lose a student to the tracks. Sometimes they walk into the path of the train, not hearing the horn, because they had their ipod ear buds turned up. More than once, someone waits for a train to roll by, and steps across the tracks before the gate lifts, only to step in front of a train coming the other direction on the far track. They never saw it. That has happened more than once in my memory. I think students are not always focused on their surroundings.
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