Yesterday, about 3 PM here in Nashvile, TN, a 49 year old man was walking facing away from a moving CSX freight train while wearing ear buds. Witnesses say he did not respond to repeated horn blasts from the engine, and was struck and killed instantly. Police are investigating presumably to rule out a suicide. My sympathy goes out to the crew in that cab, who were helpless after making an emergency application.
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Even with earbuds, it would seem that the high decibel level of the engine horn would be loud enough to hear. It could well have been a suicide by train.
deaf and dumb?
Seems like every couple of weeks a pedestrian is struck by a Metra commuter train here in Chicago-land. Of course we have a lot of railroad mileage and a large population. Statistical inevitability?
Tragic all around. Many non-train oriented folks are generally ignorant about rail operations and crossing safety.
Tinplate Art posted:Tragic all around. Many non-train oriented folks are generally ignorant about rail operations and crossing safety.
All too true, Art
Also: suicide has become one of the top three causes of death in the US. And because of air-conditioned "Comfort Cabs" and the removal of the caboose, folks see trains as large mechanical faceless devices. Maybe a cause of inconvenience... maybe a tool for a suicide... but not a vehicle with a human being at the controls. There just isn't the human interaction there once was.
Jon
Again, all true points.
Hard for me to visualize the deliberate choice of a messy, and momentary painful, means of flipping the switch. And one you might survive, with plenty of time to regret, like swan diving off buildings. Seems like the local preference is overdosing....less messy, but probably not always deliberate.
Shouldn't the title of this thread go something like this...
Man Walks In Front OF Train At Crossing
After all, it's NOT the fault of the train or the Engineer, there's nothing they can do about these situations.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Shouldn't the title of this thread go something like this...
Man Walks In Front OF Train At Crossing
After all, it's NOT the fault of the train or the Engineer, there's nothing they can do about these situations.
It depends if you are a normal person or a railfan/modeler/railroader. The former just states what happened. The latter feels the need to expand the description to why it happened.
This has all the makings of a hit country song.
No, Art, death is not amusing, but I think your Seneca quotation applies here all too well.
If ya'll are referring to my reply, it was not amusing, rather matter of fact as country music often is. Billie Joe McAllister can attest to that!
FARMER BILL: I have enjoyed your many humorous comments over the years on our forum, and I AM a fan, but we will have to agree to disagree on this one. NO disrespect intended! 
Isolated incident. Just another ear bud ZOMBIE
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