Sad day for Son-n-law, train always wins

[dirtlooter]

Just got the news that the train one of our son-n-laws was operating had a fatality today. This is the second fatality incident that he has experienced in less than a year. I haven't heard any of the particulars on this one yet but he had a hard time with the last one. A few years back his train hit a trailer full of horses that didn't make it across in time. Trains are nothing but a moving super heavy mass of steel that can not stop on a dime and I guess for some, very deceptive in speed as well. the bad part of operating a train is watching helplessly as something unfolds before your eyes no matter how long you blow that horn. Going to be tough for all.

 

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[Jbabycsx]

I’ve hit several myself. It’s pretty traumatic to say the least. Prayers for him and the families.

 

[Rookster]

We have 6 coal trains a day not to mention the freight haulers coming through my town. Car and truck parts lying in the ditch at every crossing. People even run through the barriers. Tha train wins everytime at impact.

 

[dirtlooter]

it appears that this person was on the tracks, the last one was walking beside the tracks. something that is very hard to forget. He wasn't through with his sessions from the last fatality and was already scheduled for one tomorrow. I have seen enough derailed trains over the years to have total respect to what can happen anywhere at any time

 

[dirtlooter]

well, the man was for some reason, curled up between the tracks. Drunk? high? asleep? maybe time will tell the story.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Said a prayer for your Son, and the man killed. I watched a fellow veteran commit suicide by "kissing a train." There was nothing we could do. He just stepped in front of it with no warning, no words as we hiked along the tracks headed back to our campsite. I swear I felt worse for that engineer than I did for Dan.

 

[eman1000]

Wow! This this terrible I had no idea this happened frequently. Joe Rogan just had Sturgil Simpson the country/folk singer on his podcast and he talked about several things he experienced working on a train line. He quit because of too many close calls.. We have long trains go through our town twice daily and I always leave room for the train but I can't believe the number of people that just stop their cars on the tracks at a red light.

 

[creekcrawler]

Father-in-law worked as a brakeman/conductor. He always said by the time they stopped, it was usually the caboose that he was in that stopped next the wreckage. I can't imagine.

 

[Bodkin]

So sorry to hear this. Yes, the train always wins. Prayers to all involved.

 

[zombie]

That's terrible for him. I can't imagine what he must be going through. Hopefully the help he has been getting from the first one will help right away with this one. A good friends son lost his best friend last year while he was taking a short cut home walking on the tracks. Earbuds in and music playing. I hope that he had no idea that it was coming and that it was instant. A tragic loss of a 17 year old kid that was ready to head to University with a bright future. One simple moment of carelessness is all it takes.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Stay off the railroad right of way!!
Odd how the states fence their right of ways along the freeways and you actually have to make an effort to enter. Railroads for some reason do not see any need to fence their right of ways. At least that's the way it is around here. Common for kids to hunt the tracks during dove and pheasant season...

Your son in-law deserves as much counseling as he needs or wants.

 

[LI Tom]

My son is a LIRR engineer for the last 12 years and he has had 2 deaths on his trains ,one was a suicide,the man looked right at him and stepped in front of the train, the second was a young man after bar hopping in town at a double tracked crossing stepped across with the gates still down after one train passed and did not see my son's train coming on the the other track at 70 MPH.At that speed it takes over a half mile to stop.

 

[Keith Jackson]

A while back my daughter and her friend went walking along some tracks and across a narrow trestle. They about messed themselves when they thought that a train was coming. She told me that they had to walk on the tracks because they would be trespassing if they walked through the farms beside the tracks. I explained that they would not be in near as much trouble for going through a field as they would be for walking on the tracks.

 

[piegrande]

I graduated from high school in 1960. A classmate had two small children. They and their hard of hearing grandpa went for a walk on the rail bridge. They tried to outrun the train, actually a very slow one, instead of taking the long drop into the river, all dead. The grandpa didn't hear the train, and the little kids didn't understand what they heard, I guess.

I worked with a man whose dad years ago was a rail engineer, in the area near Tama, Iowa which has the Tama Indian settlement. A lot of suicides in the settlement. The railroad developed a policy of not even trying to stop when it was obviously impossible. At the next station, they were to call in a report. And, yes, it was called kissing the train.

 

[Samanthy]

I would have never thought that railroads would confirm Darwin.