neroden
Engineer
What FormerOBS said. I mean, I've walked along the side of lightly used railroad tracks a couple of times in order to access natural areas, keeping an eye and an ear out for trains at all time, ready to jump into the ditch. When I couldn't find a viable legal crossing, I've even crossed tracks at a location without an official crossing once or twice, with great care (after determining a very long sight line in both directions, and a very clear listening profile, and then running across). I'm sympathetic when crossing warnings fail, and I'm sympathetic when a car stalls out at a crossing, and I'm sympathetic to people who fall onto the tracks by accident or are thrown on the tracks maliciously, and in general I'm sympathetic to people who are being *reasonably cautious*.
But just hanging out on the tracks? Yeesh. It's like standing in the middle of a superhighway to take photos. Or standing downrange at a firing range to take photos. It's reckless. It is pretty disgusting that magazines encourage this by publishing that kind of photo.
In San Diego last January, I watched an insane woman leading two dogs on leashes jog around the crossing gates. (Gates down, lights flashing, bells ringing, horns honking.) This was a *four track crossing* -- one Trolley had just gone by, a second Trolley had just gone by in the other direction, and these were blocking her view of the 79 mph non-stop Pacific Surfliner which was about to kill her and her dogs. Of course she wasn't actually looking left OR right and had earphones on. I was sure I was about to watch two innocent dogs get violently and brutally killed due to her recklessness, but she made it with about 1 second to spare. I have no sympathy for her at all; she deserved to die for endangering the dogs. But I would have felt really, really bad about the dogs, who don't know any better.
It was a real *** moment for me. Who DOES that? What is wrong with people like that? Can they be fixed or do they need to be locked in padded rooms for their own safety?
But just hanging out on the tracks? Yeesh. It's like standing in the middle of a superhighway to take photos. Or standing downrange at a firing range to take photos. It's reckless. It is pretty disgusting that magazines encourage this by publishing that kind of photo.
In San Diego last January, I watched an insane woman leading two dogs on leashes jog around the crossing gates. (Gates down, lights flashing, bells ringing, horns honking.) This was a *four track crossing* -- one Trolley had just gone by, a second Trolley had just gone by in the other direction, and these were blocking her view of the 79 mph non-stop Pacific Surfliner which was about to kill her and her dogs. Of course she wasn't actually looking left OR right and had earphones on. I was sure I was about to watch two innocent dogs get violently and brutally killed due to her recklessness, but she made it with about 1 second to spare. I have no sympathy for her at all; she deserved to die for endangering the dogs. But I would have felt really, really bad about the dogs, who don't know any better.
It was a real *** moment for me. Who DOES that? What is wrong with people like that? Can they be fixed or do they need to be locked in padded rooms for their own safety?
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