So - lets see - what, maybe 2020 or 2030, we'll see robotic padded arms on all lead units that swing out and push people out of the way... course, the railroad will have to contend with any resulting injuries resulting from the life saving measure.

How about this - an "extra" loud(er) horn. A horn that gets even louder after blowing say 3 seconds.

Thoughts, since you can't fix (likely) stupid.



/Mitch

And she doesn't even realize her life has just been saved by someone who cares.

Well, these days he can be lucky not to be sued by her for inappropriate touching.

Mike

Has anyone given thought to the fact that this person may be deaf, or have some sort of mental incapacity that would prevent them from reacting normally to a train coming? It's a possibility and would explain the behavior...

Didn't you see the previous person tap the idiot on the shoulder first? They never moved then, either.
That, and how they never moved afterward shows me that we're simply not dealing with someone who can't hear...

Realizing that hindsight is always 20/20, but perhaps the railroad employee in the Big Boy video clip in the high-vis vest should have been closer to the track than he was, and been more pro-active in getting onlookers back as the stack train approached. As for the clip at Harpers Ferry, I would say that there should definitely be a yellow warning strip on the platform there. Not that it would prevent the clueless from standing too close, but I'm really surprised there isn't one there. Having been at the throttle passing through stations under similar circumstances, I can tell you there are few more helpless feelings that an engineer can have than a situation like that. Right up there with looking back in your train and seeing sparks flying up from the wheels, followed by the air going down.

At first I thought the guy in the high visibility vest was a railroad employee in charge of escorting the railfans, but now I don’t think so. I have to conclude that nobody from the company was there because if there were, I don’t think they would have been so grossly incompetent as to let the incident happen.

And in the wake of the Georgia film crew accident, we have been assured repeatedly that no railroad company would ever give permission for someone to enter their property without a formal escort, safety officers, etc. So I can only assume that there was not escort, and no permission. Therefore all of those people were simply trespassing on railroad property.

Thankfully, we do have a lighter side to this, courtesy of Houston's light rail line and Houston's horrible drivers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2rdGX4JYc

How bad is Houston? I understand the metro area has or has had something like 600 traffic fatalities per year! I forget how many collisions thee have been on this street, but I recall that they have something over one per day, with or without the light rail line.

Some of the best comments with the video at YouYube:

[Satire] "Clearly the train is a murderous machine bent on killing cars."

"The light rail is taking out bad drivers left and right. GREAT JOB Metro less work for the cops."

"Darwin came and stole their mirrors."

"@edscoble I'm a Houstonian myself. I can assure you that drivers in Houston are absolutely horrible. Steer clear of the city. *snickers at pun completely intended*"

"One illegal move after another, but let's all blame the train!"

"Apparently the dinging bell, flashing strobe lights, signs, and signals just are not enough--we need moats with alligators, sandbags topped with razor wire, fog horns, and 100,000 lumen fog lights. Yep, that oughta do it."

"And I thought deer were dumb at pulling stunts like that. We're not so different when it comes to stupidity. lol"

"Hey we may be dumb but at least were good at something."

"I remember when some of this stuff happened, after a while I quit paying attention to it. The Metro is cursed... I swear it it... I live in the suburbs of Houston and I swear our light rail is cursed!"

The video in question is an excellent example of what I call "viewfinder-itis". When you spend all your time with your eye glued to the viewfinder, your perception of reality shrinks to that tiny square. You don't realize you have no peripheral vision, and you tend to mentally block out background noise, jostling, and other things that might ruin your picture.

It's not only railfans and Daisey-pickers taking pictures of trains... I knew a couple track inspectors on the CTA who were killed pretty much the same way... working in a noisy environment (the expressway median) intently inspecting a defect in a rail joint, and run down by a train. The motorman was running with the morning sun in his eyes, and the two guys were in the shadow of an overpass.

In the 4014 video, I wonder if the person engrossed with 4014 might have been a teenager. They are definitely shorter that most of the other people. If so, I wouldn't expect them to show good judgement as well as an adult. I'll also note that there were adults present next to them that should never have been where they were.

The person I have the biggest gripe with is the one filming the incident. With people in immanent danger, he continues to record while shouting at them. If I were in his place I would have abandoned the camera and run to warn them. To this photographer, his shot was more important than their lives.

-Mark

The person in the Cheyenne video was short and apparently light enough to be picked up and moved sideways fairly easily. Makes me wonder if it was a kid. That might also explain the lack of concern, as well as no apparent surprise at being picked up. I mean if that happened to a normal person, you'd expect either a "WTF?!?" and/or "Hey, thanks for saving my life!"

Looks like Mark and I had the same thought at nearly the same time...

Mark, in the videographer's defense, I suspect he was too far to run and reach them in time. Besides, somebody was already there, tapping the person on the shoulder, so at that point you'd expect them to say "Oh crap, I'm about to be squished like a bug, better move!" rather than "Hey, I'm busy..."

That's not even it. The vestibule is the crumple zone of the passenger car. In a wreck, it is designed to absorb the energy of the collision by collapsing. Not to mention all of the hard surfaces that one's head and other bits can come into contact with if you're not holding fast. Years ago, I had to provide first aid and report a passenger injury on one of my trains. The female passenger was standing in the rear vestibule of the rear car and lost her balance on rough track-struck her head against the collision post.

It was a woman. See the cautious way her life-saver dealt with her. He didn't even dare to read her the riot act.

The only one person responsable for her behaviour is that woman herself. And not the other men around.



The photographer, being too far away, is the most innocent of all. There were enough people around that woman to warn her. She wouldn't listen or react; she didn't even show respect to her life-saver, so it makes no sense to me to blame the cameraman for her behaviour.

Mike

Besides, it's possible the person taping this didn't even notice it. I once shot video of N&W 1218 and a black bear had crossed between myself and the tracks and I didn't even see it until I saw the video later. I was so focused (so to speak) on the tracks and the train which was coming around the curve, I never saw the bear that was apparently spooked by the sound. The bear was at a 90-degree angle to where I was shooting and about 100 yards away, but after that, I could easily see where in this case, the photographer didn't have the same scene he was focusing on as we were after the fact.

I recently posted this elsewhere, but it bears repeating:

Railfans generally (and I use that term loosely) know enough about trains not to get themselves killed. If/when there is an incident where an steam spectator is injured or killed it's much more likely he/she will be just your average person who "likes trains" taking a cell phone shot with no concept of how truly big a train is, or how fast it moves, how quiet it can be, or how long it takes to stop. Recent photographer deaths in the last year or so involving "regular" trains would seem to bear that out.

Last year (or the year before) there was someone who stood in the middle of the track to get a camera phone shot of an oncoming SOU 630 on an NS excursion. It was so egregious that NS steam put it on their facebook page, basically saying "DO NOT DO THIS!".