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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by ironhorseman [:(] I guess I can can keep saying this until I'm blue in the face and people will still not listen and still not heed the warning, but STAY OFF THE RAILROAD TRACKS, ALWAYS! HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED: Why do I bring this up when it's been talked about before? I know I'm preaching to the choir, everyone here knows better, but somthing happened last night. Somewhere in America a kid sat right between the rails of the main line as a train was headed for him, no more than a 1/2 mile away, traveling at 50 miles per hour, like it was some kind of joke. I know becasue I was there. I rode my bicycle to the tracks last night about 8:15PM. The tracks are about a 1/4 mile away from my house. I heard a train coming so I sped up and made it to the place in the cemetary where the tracks go by when to my horror I saw a boy and a girl on a culvert RR bridge and another boy sitting, not in the siding, but right on the main line. My heart almost stopped. I dropped my bike and started over to them but when they saw me they ran away. Am I more scary than a highballing train? HERE'S WHAT I TOLD HIM: I waited until the train passed to confront them. It would make no sense trying to talk to them while a noisy train roared passed. I caught up with them just a little ways away. I told that kid that I'm only gonna tell him once don't ever sit on or walk on or be on those tracks. You could be killed. BAM and it's all over. A bloody corpse scattered all over the tracks. It won't be pretty. It'll be gruesome It's no place to be. I didn't ask him why he was there and I didn't humiliate him either. I don't think he heard me. All he said was "alright, alright, alright." No, it's not alright. What would have happened had he been hit? How would his family feel? How would that engineer feel? What's the engineer going to tell his family? That he killed a kid today? Suppose he threw the train into emergency? All those freight cars could derail and scatter, damaging those goods, private property, the rails themselves, and any unforunate persons that would be near the tracks. Even if the train doesn't derail the line would have to be shut down for an investigation causing our economy more money because the trains that deliver our merchandise have to be delayed and rerouted. AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT CAN HAPPEN: I've never seen anyone hit by a train and I hope to never have to, but I've seen pictures of the results and 1 video. The video was shown on TV several years ago. A rail car was blocking visibility of the tracks on the left and despite the warning lights and train horn and people warning other people not to cross people darted across anyway. Finally it arrived, but one person wasn't so lucky. A woman stepped on the rail and saw the train coming and stepped back. Two people tried to run across right after this. The man was sideswiped by the train. The little girl was hit head on dead center. The TV didn't show the rest. They stopped the video on the final frame before she was hit. I found the video on the internet a few months later. It shows the girl being hit, flying through the air, and landing a the base of the cameraman, at least 30 feet or more from the point of impact, which cause the camera to topple over. It's a horrifying video yet I watched it again and again. Frame by frame. In slow motion and reverse. Needless to say the image is forever burned on my brain. INTERVENTION/PREVENTION: Maybe I prevented a tragedy. What if I had decided not to go there at that time last night? I'd probably be reading about it in the papers today. I REPEAT: PLEASE, I know you already know this, but it can't be said enough times. If you see someone on the tracks tell them to get off. Tell them what can happen. Tell them it's illegal. That way they can't say they've never been warned. Last night's railfaning was spoiled for me because of this. I thought about that kid all the rest of the night. I couldn't sleep most of last night. Everytime I heard an engine horn last night that image of that kid sitting between the rails came to mind. A SARCASTIC NOTE: If you're going to play on the rails may I suggest you also play on the freeway? Or how about a construction zone? You can play in a rock quarry, it's just as safe as a railroad. Go play in an oil refinery. Or how about a major airport runway? They're all just as safe as the railroad tracks. (that's sarcasm) A FINAL WORD: We don't need to worry about terroist attacking our railroads, we need to worry about idiots that think it is funny to sit between the rails of an oncoming train, or anyone that tampers with railroad property. TRESPASSERS NOT ONLY ENDANGER THEIR OWN LIVES BUT THE LIVES OF OTHERS. Sincerely, ironhorseman [:(!][xx(][:(] http://www.oli.org/ [/quote]YOU WERE RIGHT they couldve been killed Ive seen some one get killed by A train it wasnt pretty It was his own fault he was an old drunk bum And decided to sleep it off under a set of loaded container cars on a side track I ran him out oncE When I seen the bull (rr police) I told him where the guy was He caught him sitting on the back of a boxcar ON THE COUPLER HOUSING kicked him off the property 2 hours later As the BN yd switcher was lining the tracks I was watching As the coupled the cars together it was an easy one they coupled without force but as the slack release and Air equalizing woke him up (he came back and knowone seen him) It was then we seen him As Me And Breeze ran to ward the loco some friends went to pull the pin they thought uncoupling the cars would release the air and stop the train we couldnt pull him out the wells were just a few inches above the rail he was to big to squeeze out he crawled in between cars and crawled under the wheels toward the middle of the car As we ran It was to late we heard him screaming his arm had been cut off he tryed to get out and thats when it got worse I would rather you figure it out there could be women reading this lets just say half was underneath the train when they stopped he was dead I would Never walk down A main line or siding track ive seen bloody shoes And Other stuff In A Small town even the dogs who tried to cross[xx(][xx(] but didnt make it
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