PacSurf hits Three, Kills One in CA (10/12)

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VentureForth

VentureForth

Engineer
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Jan 23, 2007
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Location
West Melbourne, FL
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I would suspect they've learned that lesson quite well. Sadly, they'll never get to apply what they've now learned.
 
VentureForth said:
EDIT: Maybe not the PacSurf. One photo I saw showed the Pacific Surfliner, but another article said it was travelling from Seattle to LA, implicating the Coast Starlight.
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it was the southbound CS #11(10/10). Was 41 minutes late departing SLO, then 3 hours and 43 minutes late departing SBA.
 
And to be fair the two years ago story from Auburn is about as far away from the Surfliner route as you can get while still being in California and nowhere near the most recent incident and due to the different circumstances in both, the second story isn't really a relevant comparison to the first.
 
Well, if your on the railroad trestle bridge, your gambling and they lost. It sounds like they were like on the middle of it and then tried to run for safety.
 
tp49 said:
And to be fair the two years ago story from Auburn is about as far away from the Surfliner route as you can get while still being in California and nowhere near the most recent incident and due to the different circumstances in both, the second story isn't really a relevant comparison to the first.
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I get what you're saying. But even with the incident near Savannah last year during the Gregg Allman biopic trestle accident, news knows no difference.
 
Such a horrible and terrible waste of life. i never understand the desire to walk on train tracks, especially over a trestle. What did the picture reveal, nothing. Nothing but sorrow and death. Must be terrible for the train crew operating the engine that were helpless to stop the train.
 
Something I've never understood is why people run away from the train on the tracks instead of just jumping off to the side. Looking at the video of where they were hit, there was ample space on both sides of the track. But yes, they shouldn't be on the tracks in the first place.
 
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I'm not familiar with the location, so I don't know. But in a situation like that, it seems to me that irrational actions are likely the result of panic. The logical course doesn't necessarily occur to somebody who acts without an escape strategy and doesn't have time to create one.

A logical person sees tracks and concludes that they are used by trains, at least occasionally. If that logical person decides to trespass on those tracks, it is either because he/she has good reason to believe there will be no trains coming, or because he/she has a plan to escape to safety if a train comes. If the person is not logical, then my last sentence is irrelevant.

Tom
 
I thought it was quite a long way down to jump over the side of that trestle. That may have caused the parties to freeze instead of jump.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
NPR had a piece on peds yesterday

I cant paste the link but just Google All Things Considered

followed by a piece on fiery oil derailments

crash and burn
 
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Kalmbach Publishing Company's forum for Trains Magazine has a current discussion of this. On that forum, somebody says the overriding legal precedent in California is that the very presence of a railroad track is prima facie evidence that a train could come along, and any person of normal intelligence and legal age should know that without being told.

Tom
 
So if a kid gets hit by a train, it's ok? I know it's not. I just wonder, legally, when that line is drawn. If these were 17 year old teens doing it, then who, legally, is culpable?
 
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I don't know the exact wording of the California precedent, which dates back many, many years and has been reaffirmed many times since. I don't know what they consider the legal age, below which the child is presumed to be unable to perceive the danger. And I don't know what legal responsibility the parent or legal guardian has in cases where the child is not legally responsible.

NO. IT IS NOT OK IF A KID GETS HIT BY A TRAIN. It's a tragedy. But can you say Amtrak, or the Union Pacific Railroad, or the Engineer, was the kid's legal guardian? The news report (which may or may not be accurate) says the four trespassers were between the ages of 18 and 29.

Tom
 
These stories don't get the publicity they deserve; they appear after so many other stories, that these headlines get glossed over by most. Therefore, people don't realize the frequency that this happens, and just assume they'll get out of the way in time, or they'll beat the train at the crossing because everyone else always does. Unless awareness of this is increased (the actual frequency of people being hit by trains being far larger then what the common person thinks), these stories will continue to happen. The only sympathy I have is for the engineer who has to live with knowing he hit the people.
 
I agree these stories don't get the publicity they deserve. You can't beat a train, so don't try. There's a 3 rail CSX main line going through my village that is very busy and once every few months, there's an incident with a truck/car and a train. Someone trying to beat it across after the signal comes on. Stupid. There have been kids killed locally also, walking on the line or on bridges. I read through this thread and I would not want to be the engineer that sees this happen knowing there is nothing he/she can do about it. Stay off the rails/bridges, they are private property.
 
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