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[quote user="marknewton"][quote user="Bucyrus"]The news reports have stated that a plank was missing, leaving a 6-foot-long hole presumably as wide as the plank.[/quote] News reports on matters like these are about as reliable as the average lawyer, in my experience. [quote] Maybe you would hang onto the handrail, [/quote] Yes, I would. [quote] but I doubt that most people would.[/quote] Then most people would probably fall off eventually. [quote] I might keep my hand running along it ready to grip if the conditions seemed really treacherous.[/quote] You're 180' above the ground on a live railroad bridge with a narrow wooden walkway - how much more treacherous do you think it could get? [quote] There is no obvious reason to hang onto it unless the wind is blowing hard and/or there is a lot of snow or ice.[/quote] The obvious reason is that you're 180' above the ground on a live railroad bridge with a narrow wooden walkway. But now I'm beginning to understand what sort of person US liability laws were intended to benefit when they were framed. Idiots with a death wish... [quote] But if I were walking across, I would favor the side of the walkway nearest the track and keep an eye out for trains. I would also keep my eyes on the walkway.[/quote] You'd find it very hard to do both - you'd probably either get struck by a train, or fall off and get killed. [quote]If you are aware of all possibilities, you must consider that the walkway may have gotten torn up by a passing train and nobody knows it yet.[/quote] Really - torn up how, exactly? Mark. (I know I wrote earlier that continuing this exchange was a waste of time,but I admit to being fascinated by the sheer bone-headedness of the OP's attitude to personal safety and responsibility.)[/quote]Mark, Let me clear some things up for you.  I wonder why you seem so reluctant to believe that there was a hole in the walkway large enough for a person to have fallen through, as the news has reported.  The news has also reported that the woman did accidentally fall through that hole.  I only use the term deathtrap to differentiate relative degrees of danger.  I am not saying that the bridge is not dangerous.  You can call it a deathtrap if you want.  Some people call small cars deathtraps.  But I call that hole a deathtrap to indicate that it poses a far greater danger than all the other aspects of the bridge combined.  Surly you would agree.  And it would be much more likely to not see a hole in time to avoid stepping into it if it were nighttime, as opposed to broad daylight.I don't know whether the victim had her hand on the handrail at the time of the fall, but I do agree that if there were a hole in the walkway large enough to fall through, a person would be less likely to fall through it if they had their hand on the handrail.  However, even with a hand on the handrail, there is no guarantee that a person could grip the rail sufficiently to keep themselves from going down once they stepped into the hole.  In addition to falling through a hole, one must plan on the possibility of breaking though the walkway because of a weakened condition at some point that is not visually apparent.  For that reason, I would prefer to not walk near the guardrail where one must rely totally upon the single planks to hold him or her up.  That would be like having all your eggs in one basket so to speak.  If I were walking across at night, I would do it as I described, favoring the side nearest the track.  This would place me so far from the handrail that it would not be possible to hang onto it.  Perhaps I could reach it with my arm extended horizontally, but an extended arm is in a much-compromised position to arrest a fall.  So I would forgo the handrail and plan on catching the track rail or other likely more reliable concentrations of features near the track in case my footing gave way.  Those track-related structures are going to be much more structurally reliable than the single planks of the walkway.  And I can assure you that I would not get hit by a train or fall off the bridge as you contend.Also, perhaps I should clarify that I am not advocating this crossing technique as a way to trespass without getting killed.  I am referring to the way I would do it if I had a legitimate reason to be on the bridge.
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