Woman Crawls under CN Train - Dies

[Limitedclear]

Forrest County woman killed by train

Hattiesburg American • August 14, 2008

A Forrest County woman was attempting to cross the train tracks at James and Williams streets by crawling underneath the train when the train hit and killed her, officials said today.

"It appears that the train was stopped on the track. She crawled underneath it while the train was stopped. She was going to crawl underneath it to get to the other side, and the train started, " Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said.

The woman's name has not been released, pending notification of family.

Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman Synarus Green said the accident occurred around 3 a.m. today.

Green said the woman was struck by a Canadian National Train. Officials there have not said if they will conduct a separate investigation.

Green said police do not believe foul play was involved in the accident.

[Doublestack]

Hey, I know... lets turn this into another debate on tresspassing laws!!

Shame for her, shame for the family, but it was a dumb thing to do - nuff said.

[edblysard]

Wow,

CN must be a bunch of dummies...first they build a great big high bridge and let people walk across it all the time and forget to repair a "missing plank" and now they invite/entice a person to crawl under one of their stopped trains...

They should have had sufficient lighting on the bridge for trespassers, uh, I mean guest, to see the walkway clearly at night, even when they are drunk, and they should have installed fencing along the entire right of way, on both sides, to prevent another adult from crawling under a stopped train.

Silly CN, expecting adults to act responsibly.

[Modelcar]

.....Maybe the word "danger" better be reviewed over and over again in our schools....Seems it has lost it's meaning...!

[Soo 6604]

Wonder if it was at a public road crossing. If so, maybe all the railcars in North America needs some kind of skirting on sides of every car so these types of people are kept from thinning the heard out. If not, the people should demand that the railroads build a walkway every 1/4 mile so people of her mentality can cross safely. Maybe even every 1/8th mile. Big bad CN. In the last week or so they have killed a woman by removing a plank just before she gets to the area. and now, the train baited her to crawl under the train by stopping. When she crawled under the train, the train started moving, just as the train planned.

Now I say we all sign a petition to rip up all the rail lines in America, ship by truck, so we can protect these kind of people. Safety First you know. <eyeroll>

Paul

Oh, and let's hope these stupid people don't go and play on the highways

[rrnut282]

Don't hold your breath, if a 15,000,000 pound train doesn't scare them, surely a 80,000 pound truck won't.

[SWChicagoRailfan]

Hey, I know... lets turn this into another debate on tresspassing laws!!

Shame for her, shame for the family, but it was a dumb thing to do - nuff said.

 

Anybody who blames the railroad for this needs to be pummelled repeatedly with a tack hammer.  

[Railroader_Sailor_SSN-760]

Two great things have taken place:

1. A certified idiot has been removed from the population.

2.) Said idiot can not cause any further contamination to the gene pool.

It would be nice to see CN sue the family of the idiot for costs incurred by this.

 

[jclass]

Will CN get pulled into this one, too?

http://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/502522.html?nav=5002

[spikejones52002]

She must have fallen asleep across the rails. I never seen even an engine start movement so fast that someone could not move out from under it.

This I am sure of. CN will be held negligent for not giving proper warning.

[joegreen]

I know a guy who did this on a almost daily basis for awhile a couple years ago. The IC&E trains that roll through town sometimes gotta stop to re-align a manual switch and would block the crossing accessing the factory which he worked. Since the factory was very strict on people who were late to work he would get impatient and just crawl under or walk over the coupler and leave his car at the crossing for his woman to pick up later. Honestly, Hes was pretty lucky to not get killed. Ive seen this move many times and it took a train 2 minutes tops to do this before the train would start rollin again. With all the times he did it im suprised nothing happened.

[trainfan1221]

Crawled under the train?  Now that's asking for it.  Why do these things continue to happen?

I remember several years back one of the tabloids had a story with a very convincing picture of a little girl in a foreign country who apparently cut between a couple of train cars and got squashed between the two bumpers.  It was really sad, possibly not completely true considering the source but the picture was enough to make you cry anyway.

[SW 1200]

What is wrong with these people? 

Maybe she should have crossed under the train in the middle of a car; that way if the train jerked to life she would be away from the wheels and could escape. 

Still, a dumb thing to attempt.  I am collecting incidents of this type going back to the beginning of the 20th century; it is still happening.  And it will continue to happen.  Like has been said in previous threads of this nature: another one for Darwin. 

TonyM.

[AgentKid]

In Calgary AB. in the 1990's there were stories in the newspapers about men in business suits who carried wire cutters in their briefcase's so they could get to their cars by by cutting through the chain link fences lining the CPR ROW between 9 and 10 Ave's. SW.

[spikejones52002]

It is true about the about 8 year old German girl getting crushed between the buffers of train cars.

It happen about 1964. I was stationed in Wiesbaden Gr. at the time. Her picture was in the Stars and Strips newspaper.

She and about 6 other youngster were cutting across the tracks to go to school.

[eolafan]

As has been proven very many times...when you play with fire, you're sure to get burned!

[zardoz]

I've seen supposedly well-educated commuters do the same thing in the Chicago area.  Many times while working suburban trains, at stations where the train is spotted across the main street, I would observe a commuter that just disembarked my train crawl under the train to get to the parking lot quicker. 

When I would see someone about to go under, I set a few pounds of air on the train brakes.  Sometimes the sound of the triple valve actuating is suffucient to give them second thoughts; if it doesn't, I wait until the moron is actually going under the coach--that's when I release the air brakes.  The sound of the air exhausting sends them scurrying out from under the train at a high rate, hopefully with the need to change their shorts before getting in their personal cars.

[CShaveRR]

This afternoon, I was on the platform at Elmhurst.  A proviso-bound freight was sitting on Track 1, waiting for the signal at Park to clear, once a westbound departed Global 2.

As soon as the westbound cleared, the eastbound got a Diverging Approach to allow it into the yard (it must have been going to County Line, or the westbound stacker wouldn't have conflicted with it).  About ten seconds after the signal cleared, an announcement came over the Voice of Metra:  "Attention Metra passengers at Elmhurst:  the freight train blocking the platform is about to start moving.  Stay back of the yellow line.  Do not attempt to go around, through, or under this train."  The announcement was then repeated.  It only took two seconds from the end of the repeat for the train to begin moving.

Considering that the Agent had long since left the building, this was an announcement from downtown.  It's nice to know that either (a) Metra keeps an eye on all trains in its territories, even if they're not responsible for the dispatching, or (b) either the crew of the freight or the Terminal Dispatcher had the presence of mind to call Metra in a situation like this and advise them of the potential hazard.

Either way, I'm proud of both UP and Metra for taking this extra step to assure public safety, but saddened at the same time to think that such an announcement was considered necessary, because the public is so darned ignorant of the dangers.  This is a place where the engines were stopped within a block of the police station, and the right-of-way and all crossings are posted with signs warning of the penalties of trespassing.

[Janice]

Forrest County woman killed by train

Hattiesburg American • August 14, 2008

A Forrest County woman was attempting to cross the train tracks at James and Williams streets by crawling underneath the train when the train hit and killed her, officials said today.

"It appears that the train was stopped on the track. She crawled underneath it while the train was stopped. She was going to crawl underneath it to get to the other side, and the train started, " Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said.

The woman's name has not been released, pending notification of family.

Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman Synarus Green said the accident occurred around 3 a.m. today.

Green said the woman was struck by a Canadian National Train. Officials there have not said if they will conduct a separate investigation.

Green said police do not believe foul play was involved in the accident.

So much for being patient & just wait it out.

[Janice]

Hey, I know... lets turn this into another debate on tresspassing laws!!

Shame for her, shame for the family, but it was a dumb thing to do - nuff said.

 

Anybody who blames the railroad for this needs to be pummelled repeatedly with a tack hammer.  

Agreed!

[SWChicagoRailfan]

I know a guy who did this on a almost daily basis for awhile a couple years ago. The IC&E trains that roll through town sometimes gotta stop to re-align a manual switch and would block the crossing accessing the factory which he worked. Since the factory was very strict on people who were late to work he would get impatient and just crawl under or walk over the coupler and leave his car at the crossing for his woman to pick up later. Honestly, Hes was pretty lucky to not get killed. Ive seen this move many times and it took a train 2 minutes tops to do this before the train would start rollin again. With all the times he did it im suprised nothing happened.

 

Yesterday at the 63rd Street grade crossing of the BRC in Chicago, I saw a local climb on a stopped GMTX unit and cross over to the other side. I wasn't quick enough with my camera so no evidence. While pretty ballsy and stupid to do this, it's at least a tad smarter than going under the train.