Suicide by Train---again!

Sad all around... for the train crew, and for the family of the deceased.

Where there is a will - sick or otherwise - there is always a way.  A train just makes it quick and overwhelming likely your suicide attempt won't fail.  

Four years ago we were on an Amtrak Southern Star that had to stop for four hours near Selma NC because some idiot suicided by running his pickup out in front of the train just as it approached.  We were on the train again yesterday and for some reason I kept thinking of that incident and hoping it would not happen any more.

This incident reminds me of a somewhat similar, harrowing event for an engineer, which I witnessed. I grew up in CB&Q terrtory, Hinsdale, IL to be precise. One afternoon, 1961 if I recall, was cruising around with a buddy in his '57 Cadillac, and noted a Burlington E5 set and Zephyr train stopped in town. This was a never occurance, as the Zephys barreled through town at the prescribed 79 mph, always.  I noted the engineer of the stopped train was looking out of the cab window, his drooping gloves pinched in his finger tips and a most dejected look on his face. I learned later that 3 boys were playing on the tracks at Highlands Station, about 1.5 miles east, when the Zephyr descended on them; two boys jumped, the 3rd froze. Alas, life can be so cruel.