Railroad Deaths

[boxcarsyix]

New campaign to prevent trespasser deaths.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_RAILROAD_SAFETY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[FriskyFL]

Next to texting while driving, trespassing on the rails is about as an affirmative confirmation of natural selection in action as it gets.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Just read about a second one within 2 weeks here in Delaware (both Amtrak)

WILMINGTON, Del. - April 8, 2014 (WPVI) -- A person was struck and killed by a train Tuesday in Wilmington.

Police say the incident happened at 11:36 a.m. Tuesday on the railroad tracks near Banning Park.

Delaware State troopers and Amtrak Police officers converged on the scene at Park Lane then walked north along the tracks.

The victim's body was located behind an industrial site near the end of Robinson Lane.
Investigators say person was hit by the Amtrak Acela Express, travelling from Boston to Washington, D.C.

Images from Chopper 6 HD showed an Amtrak Acela train stopped some distance past the accident scene.

There were 150 people on board the train at the time of the crash. They were transferred to another train to continue their trip.

Investigators say the authorized track speed in that area is 110 MPH, but it is not known if the train was going that fast at the time of impact.

There were some minor delays to other trains as a result of this incident and the investigation.

(Copyright ©2014 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Here's the first one

WILMINGTON, Del. - April 3, 2014 (WPVI) -- Police say a man was killed after being struck by a train in Wilmington, Delaware early Thursday morning.

The accident happened around 12:30 a.m. at 12th and Claymont Streets.

According to police, the man was found on a railroad overpass.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say the victim had been reported missing around 11:00 p.m.Wednesday.

Amtrak service was halted at the location as police investigated.

(Copyright ©2014 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

 

[neroden]

An awful lot of railroad trespasser deaths are suicides. I'm not sure what sort of campaign to run to say "Commit suicide some other way, please", since that tends to offend people...

 

[MattW]

An awful lot of railroad trespasser deaths are suicides. I'm not sure what sort of campaign to run to say "Commit suicide some other way, please", since that tends to offend people...

Sounds like a good idea to me. People don't listen until you shock them, and shock them hard. Maybe use a few animal carcasses that have been donated to science, put them in front of a fast train, video the results and say "that could be you if you walk on the tracks!"

 

[Green Maned Lion]

If someone wants to commit suicide, the rapid speed and finality of a train would be MORE appealing. The best way to discourage it is to run public safety stuff focusing on how much it hurts the innocent engineers and conductors.

 

[jphjaxfl]

They should show pictures of a body that has been hit by a train. I saw 1 man brought into the ER of the Air Force hospital where I worked whose truck was hit by a freight train at a nearby cross road. He was still alive, but very mangled. He died shortly after, but the sight of his mangled body is something I will never forget. I think about it every time I am waiting for a train to pass at a crossing.

 

[afigg]

An awful lot of railroad trespasser deaths are suicides. I'm not sure what sort of campaign to run to say "Commit suicide some other way, please", since that tends to offend people...

Yes, some trespasser deaths are suicides, but I don't recall seeing a percentage estimate. The FRA keeps detailed information on trespasser and grade crossing fatalities and incidents, but I don't think they attempt to get data on the police or coroner report findings on the reasons for a trespasser fatality.

There were 476 reported trespasser fatalities in 2013, but these are for the railroads that fall under the FRA. Transit systems such as the NYC subway and DC Metro have trespasser fatalities, which are reported to the FTA, but since those are closed systems, a high percentage are suicides.

 

[afigg]

Just read about a second one within 2 weeks here in Delaware (both Amtrak)

The stretch of the NEC from around Wilmington to PHL appears to have a large portion of the trespasser fatlities on the NEC. The tracks go through industrial areas and neighborhoods, but is not as fenced off as it could be from what I have observed. The SEPTA stops between WIL and PHL are all low platforms which makes it easy to step onto the tracks, so people sometime cut across the tracks at those stations. There are short fence segment in the middle of the 4 tracks at the station, but some will walk around or climb over the fence. Upgrading the SEPTA stations to high level platforms with better fencing around the stations should reduce the number of trespasser hits in DE and PA, but the money to do that is hard to come by.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Just read about a second one within 2 weeks here in Delaware (both Amtrak)

The stretch of the NEC from around Wilmington to PHL appears to have a large portion of the trespasser fatlities on the NEC. The tracks go through industrial areas and neighborhoods, but is not as fenced off as it could be from what I have observed. The SEPTA stops between WIL and PHL are all low platforms which makes it easy to step onto the tracks, so people sometime cut across the tracks at those stations. There are short fence segment in the middle of the 4 tracks at the station, but some will walk around or climb over the fence. Upgrading the SEPTA stations to high level platforms with better fencing around the stations should reduce the number of trespasser hits in DE and PA, but the money to do that is hard to come by.

Between WIL and NRK there's a lot of "open" tracks. The tracks run behind houses in my neighborhood and I don't believe there are non-residential fences along there. Not far from there, where I used to work, the tracks were accessible. The security guy at the location had told me he's seen people walk/run across the tracks.