Amtrak Cascades hits 2 children in WA State
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amtrakwolverine
Engineer
this link says it was 2 teenagers and they were standing on the tracks while waiting for a freight train to pass.
http://www.kptv.com/news/19182721/detail.html
http://www.kptv.com/news/19182721/detail.html
That's real sad. Its a tragedy whenever someone is struck by a train, especially a child. However there's the same lesson to be learned... don't walk on the tracks.
When is this going to stop? This is the fourth or fifth incident posted on these boards this week. It's heartbreaking that innocent people are being killed over something that is absolutely preventable...and not only that, is common sense!
Would stepping up Operation Lifesaver presentations help get the word out?
Would stepping up Operation Lifesaver presentations help get the word out?
amtrakwolverine
Engineer
maybe putting up electric fences all over the place would help(but they would need to be solor powered with battery backup to make it plausible)
Well, by preventable I mean preventable by the people just using their heads, keeping an awareness around them (something not enough people do these days), and in general not doing stupid things. I don't think it's necessary to spend millions (tens or even hundreds of millions, even) to erect fences (which won't do much without grade separation, either, which puts it in the billions). We just need to drill it into people's heads that railroad tracks are not things you play on. It was drilled into my head as a child (and again even more so when I hired on as a brakeman!), and I have a healthy respect for them. I have still wandered down the tracks on rare occasions, but I do so only in areas with long-range visibility and lower speed limits...I wouldn't do it on a blind curve where trains can hit me at 79 or even 60! (I usually feel a tinge of guilt doing so, because I now hear my new-hire class trainer echoing in my head that that is an unacceptable no-no...but some of the shots I got of the Indian Pacific and Ghan tracks from down between the rails in the middle of nowhere came out pretty spectacular...now I need to upload and post them!)
amtrakwolverine
Engineer
i agree we need a new way to get it instilled in there brains. the only time i cross tracks is when i need to get to the other side and the tracks cross my path. then i will step over the tracks and keep going. this at a grade crossing but instead of walking in the street i will walk over the tracks to get to the other side. and notice i said cross not walk on the tracks.
PetalumaLoco
Conductor
Some people are complacent really. When ever you see railroad, how often do you see a train on them? Not too often depending on the line. The tracks in my town are only used about once a day if even that and most people don't even think twice about crossing them, in a car or as pedestrian. It's pretty sad.
We lose about a student a year at Chico State. The campus is on one side of the tracks, most student housing is on the other, and Chico State students have a party mentality half of each week. UP raised the speed limit through town a few years ago on the basis that someone sleeping drunk on the tracks wasn't going to get out of the way at any speed.
Every semester, campus makes a big deal about train safety. But it only sticks after someone dies. They make the same big deals about alcohol poisoning, but every year we lose someone to that, too (except the year where it was water poisoning instead, for the same rituals).
My personal opinion is that there is a certain age where otherwise sensible and smart people intermittently turn off their brains and do stupid things of one sort or another. I did, it is only luck I survived to adulthood, and the same is probably true for most adults.
I do not believe there is a solution. Yes, we need to educate people about hazards, but some are still going to engage in stupid behavior. It is impossible to build physical barriers around all hazards, and I'm not sure it is philosophically desirable even if it could be done cheaply and aesthetically.
Every semester, campus makes a big deal about train safety. But it only sticks after someone dies. They make the same big deals about alcohol poisoning, but every year we lose someone to that, too (except the year where it was water poisoning instead, for the same rituals).
My personal opinion is that there is a certain age where otherwise sensible and smart people intermittently turn off their brains and do stupid things of one sort or another. I did, it is only luck I survived to adulthood, and the same is probably true for most adults.
I do not believe there is a solution. Yes, we need to educate people about hazards, but some are still going to engage in stupid behavior. It is impossible to build physical barriers around all hazards, and I'm not sure it is philosophically desirable even if it could be done cheaply and aesthetically.
This is a very interesting report. For one thing, nearly all of the fatalities are people who are old enough to know better. There are very few children and teenagers. Secondly, trespassing is a much bigger problem than grade crossings. Third, there are some funny descriptions, for example (non-fatal):
•5/3/2008 SEATTLE - Vehicle left SR-99 and flew over cut of railcars leaving paint transfer on railcar.
The vehicle, of its own volition, took up flying? I want one of those when it learns to land in a more controlled manner.
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