#21(28) Kills Trespasser

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From kmov.com:

Authorities say the Amtrak train “Texas Eagle” struck and killed a pedestrian on the tracks in Lincoln, Illinois on Friday.

The train, en route to San Antonio, Texas from Chicago, was scheduled to stop in St. Louis at 6:22 p.m. Friday evening, but was running late. The train was passing through Lincoln at 6:45 when it hit and killed a pedestrian walking on the tracks.

It was reported the train was carrying 121 passengers at the time of accident, however no one onboard was injured.

Amtrak officials said they are unsure when the train will be released.

Police investigation is on-going.[Last update was midnight.]
Looks like it arrived in Walnut Ridge, AR 5 hours, 45 min. late.

Thoughts and prayers to suriviors and crew.
 
My best wishes to the crew, especially to the engineer.

And RIP to the person that made a mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. I just don't understand how these things happen. How do you miss a train, all that whistle and vibration coming up behind you, unless it is "suicide by train"?
 
Just a couple of nights ago, I watched a train video made from a film produced by Southern Pacific about 1950. It was a safety film directed to kids, probably used in many a classroom in the 1950s and 1960s, showing the hazards of playing around train yards and tracks.

Maybe we need to reintroduce such films in today's schools, so that everyone is reminded - frequently - of the risks.

edit for misspelling.
 
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My best wishes to the crew, especially to the engineer.

And RIP to the person that made a mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. I just don't understand how these things happen. How do you miss a train, all that whistle and vibration coming up behind you, unless it is "suicide by train"?
I'm not saying this was the case, but there have been several incidents in which someone was walking/jogging on the tracks while wearing headphones or earbuds.
 
Thanks, Sarah, that would make sense. I don't like to use earbuds or headphones because they reduce my situational awareness, and I didn't even think to apply that to a person walking along railroad tracks. I wish all the best for the family of the person struck by the train, but that would be remarkably inappropriate place to listen to your iPod.

My best wishes to the crew, especially to the engineer.

And RIP to the person that made a mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. I just don't understand how these things happen. How do you miss a train, all that whistle and vibration coming up behind you, unless it is "suicide by train"?
I'm not saying this was the case, but there have been several incidents in which someone was walking/jogging on the tracks while wearing headphones or earbuds.
 
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There have also been a few cases of freights around here hitting trespassers, and it turns out, as they say, "alcohol was involved." I suppose being drunk decreases your situational awareness more than even earbuds might.

I always feel bad for the engineers in these cases; even when it's clearly in no way their fault they still have to live with what happened.
 
Unfortunate that 121 passengers are delayed because of the carelessness of 1 individual.
Isn't that very low load?

Normal Texas Eagle consist is 3 coaches + 2 sleepers (at least, without LAX tag-ons), so total capacity (74x3)+(42x2) = 306 passengers.

So, the train was running more than 60% empty.

"Sure, lets cut down amenities and increase fares because Amtrak LD trains run so full we will be able to sell-out anyway" -Bean Counters
 
Unfortunate that 121 passengers are delayed because of the carelessness of 1 individual.
Isn't that very low load?

Normal Texas Eagle consist is 3 coaches + 2 sleepers (at least, without LAX tag-ons), so total capacity (74x3)+(42x2) = 306 passengers.

So, the train was running more than 60% empty.

"Sure, lets cut down amenities and increase fares because Amtrak LD trains run so full we will be able to sell-out anyway" -Bean Counters
It's pretty hard to base that on one travel date out of 365, though. Plus, who knows how many pax they picked up in St. Louis?
 
Unfortunate that 121 passengers are delayed because of the carelessness of 1 individual.
Isn't that very low load?

Normal Texas Eagle consist is 3 coaches + 2 sleepers (at least, without LAX tag-ons), so total capacity (74x3)+(42x2) = 306 passengers.

So, the train was running more than 60% empty.

"Sure, lets cut down amenities and increase fares because Amtrak LD trains run so full we will be able to sell-out anyway" -Bean Counters
It's pretty hard to base that on one travel date out of 365, though. Plus, who knows how many pax they picked up in St. Louis?
I agree, that was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Anyway, "full Amtrak LD train" is this mythical creature that I am yet to see for myself. Every time I have traveled either by Sleeper or Coach, every LD train is always reasonably empty with people sprawled across multiple seats.

Some folks here have a different definition of "full trains" than in countries with a serious functional rail network though. "I could not see any empty pairs of seats = train was full" is what I have heard multiple times. And I am not basing this of one-off experience, I have on each of the following routes at least once, many of them several times and never seen the train being completely full, or even close to completely full- EB, CS, CZ, SL, TE, San Joaquin, Heartland Flyer, Capitol Corridor.
 
Join us on the SWC during Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a full house, especially on the way out of Chicago. :)
 
The total onboard was closer to 240. I'm sure whatever Amtrak Rep that supplied that information only pulled up the manifest for 21 but failed to add in the totals for the 321 and 421
 
My ride on the Coast Starlight southbound last year was literally packed to the 100%. When we pulled into Eugene it looked like half the university was there to get on. It was a crazy night, luckily I was tucked away in my sleeper during most of the shenanigans.
 
Thanks, Sarah, that would make sense. I don't like to use earbuds or headphones because they reduce my situational awareness, and I didn't even think to apply that to a person walking along railroad tracks. I wish all the best for the family of the person struck by the train, but that would be remarkably inappropriate place to listen to your iPod.

My best wishes to the crew, especially to the engineer.

And RIP to the person that made a mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. I just don't understand how these things happen. How do you miss a train, all that whistle and vibration coming up behind you, unless it is "suicide by train"?
I'm not saying this was the case, but there have been several incidents in which someone was walking/jogging on the tracks while wearing headphones or earbuds.
Even with headphones, unless their the super duper noise canceling kind, they don't block all noise.
I live in an apartment building, and even with headphones on I hear the people on the next floor talking or watching TV. In fact, wearing headphones I'm much more aware to the noise. So I don't really buy that excuse.
 
Depends on the headphones.

I've got a really nice pair of in ear ones that basically act like earplugs - I can't hear much of anything with them in, even before I fire up any music. They're awesome.
 
The crew on the flight deck on aircraft carriers have really really good noise-cancelling headphones.

But the app they use gives them warning, and they are all always paying attention (that's how they earn their extra pay)

With all this GPS and all - how about an app that uses GPS and "interrupts your normal programming" to say --

Maybe "Inbound relative zero 130 knots 3 seconds"

Or better - "Jump or run - 10 seconds to impact".

No doubt that could be done.

Anybody want to write that warning app?
 
Who knows what the trespasser was thinking and what was their mental state? Could be that it was a suicide and they didn't want to look at the train. Could be that they would not or could not think about the results of their action on innocent people like the engineer or their family.

So sad. So stupid.
 
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Sounds like it ws maybe "suicide by train"?. This is the second pedestrian accident in the area in the last month
 
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