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Re: (erielack) Two killed by passenger trains within 48 hours

I could not agree with you more.

Steve
- -- 
The railroad's best safety device
Is a well trained, well rested engineer
www.ble272.org

> From: <railwriter_@_comcast.net>
> Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:17:25 +0000
> To: Steven Kay <s.kay4_@_verizon.net>, Bill Guimes <vze3fhdr@verizon.net>, Dad
> <wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>
> Cc: <erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org>, EL List <erielack@lists.railfan.net>
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Two killed by passenger trains within 48 hours
> 
> I was involved in a fatality three years ago in which a young boy wanted to
> see how close he could get his head to the side of my train without getting
> hit. Fortunately, I was doing EVERYTHING right, as the event recorder
> testified, so the ONLY legal action the parent could take was a $55-million
> suit against CSX, saying that they should have had the right of way fenced
> off, that while she [the mother] realized that her son was trespassing, he
> should not have had access to the tracks. She further claimed that she wasn't
> aware that there was even a railroad nearby (a block away.) In a last
> desperate attempt, the family's lawyer even attempted to say that the warning
> signs were placed too high for a child to see.
> 
> My point here is that we don't live in a vaccuum. People have to accept SOME
> responsability for their lives. The point in life is NOT to find someone at
> fault for injuring you, either physically or mentally, and suing them to
> provide you support for the rest of your life, yet this is the posture of the
> legal profession. This is why they exist. It's no longer about justice. It's
> about money. (One local law firm has even done a series of commercials saying
> just that "It's about the money. The money to enable people to get on with
> their lives after a tragedy".
> 
> At some point, we all have to take responsability for our life. People don't
> walk on airport runways or play in the middle of interstate highways because
> they KNOW that this is dangerous. You'd have to ride up and down the northeast
> corridor and see all of the holes people have cut in the fence to appreciate
> that fencing isn't the answer. But as long as people can be shown that they
> can achieve life's goals by letting someone else pay the freight, they're
> going to do it.
> 
> I'd seriously thought about counter suing after the $55-million case was
> settled (allegedy for the burial expenses of the young boy who was killed.)
> But what the heck, I'd only be giving lawyers a new angle to bring lawsuits
> and line their own pockets at the expense and suffering of others.
> 
> 
>> Walter,
>> 
>> All engineers sympathize with the situation you describe because all
>> engineers face that same situation at some time in their careers but fencing
>> the right of way and putting up signs does little to stop trespassers.
>> Amtrak tried it when they re-established the Empire Connection. In less time
>> then it took to put the fence up it was cut and people continued to cross
>> the tracks as if nothing had happened.
>> 
>> FYI, that the location where the recent suicide occurred by Normandy Parkway
>> was fenced on the side where the fool jumped.
>> 
>> Can you imagine the cost of fencing the entire railroad system in this
>> country just to keep from running over a bunch of people that should know
>> better? Once fenced, a constant vigil will have to be maintained to fix
>> fences that have been breached or the railroad will face a huge liability
>> (the railroad didn't fix the fence therefore the railroad "allowed" that
>> person access to the track).
>> 
>> Besides, a trespasser will always have access to the tracks at grade
>> crossing where, I believe, most people are killed and injured.
>> 
>> Suicides and trespassers will always find a way to get in from of a train.
>> It is a part of the railroader's life. We have to get used to it as best we
>> can. Those that attend this list must stay off the tracks at all times and
>> teach their friends and children to stay off also.
>> 
>> I think that for those concerned with safety around the railroad, and that
>> should be all of us, education is only answer to trespasser fatalities.
>> 
>> Fences may "make great neighbors" but they don't stop trespassers.
>> 
>> Back to the fun stuff, please.
>> 
>> Steve
>> -- 
>> Running trains over Transit1s torturous
>> 3Mountain Division2
>> http://www.ble272.org
>> 
>>> From: bill guimes <vze3fhdr_@_verizon.net>
>>> Reply-To: bill guimes <vze3fhdr_@_verizon.net>
>>> Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 19:51:29 -0500
>>> To: Dad <wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>
>>> Cc: Harlan Hannah <s2choochoo_@_bellsouth.net>, Pete McHugh
>>> <PEMcHugh_@_aol.com>,
>>> john kluge <johnkluge_@_citcom.net>, Alfred Runte <Alfred_Runte@msn.com>, Ken
>>> Clark <portlandturn_@_yahoo.com>, "'Charles_Walsh@berlex.com'"
>>> <Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com>, "Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)"
>>> <paultup_@_lucent.com>,
>>> John Cooper <snopercod_@_citcom.net>, Richard Herbst
>>> <richardble_@_worldnet.att.net>, doug riddell <railwriter@comcast.net>, Bill
>>> Robinson <OverCrailway_@_aol.com>, <erielack-owner@lists.elhts.org>, EL List
>>> <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net>
>>> Subject: Re: (erielack) Two killed by passenger trains within 48 hours
>>> 
>>> There are laws against trespassing. Railroads are private property. If
>>> people opt to disobey the law, they suffer the consequences. It's tough
>>> to stop somebody intent on causing others injury, death, or playing
>>> chicken with a train.
>>> 
>>> I believe if you went to the trouble of fencing in the ROW, it would
>>> pose more of a challenge to trespassers and the like.
>>> 
>>> From my experience with those types, I ignore them. They tend to go away.
>>> 
>>> Bill
>>> 
>>> Dad wrote:
>>>> Paul,
>>>>      Altho most of us really DON'T want to heare about such diststeful
>>>> topics, I think they DO need airing in order that SOMETHING will be done
>>>> about folks who trespass on RR tracks. I mean fencing, trespass warnings,
>>>> etc. On TRI-RAIL, I had a guy leap out from behind a boxcar on a siding
>>>> next
>>>> to the mainline while running at 60 mph. He tore open his shirt & stood in
>>>> the middle of the track like Superman.  I didn't even have time to take my
>>>> hand from the throttle & grab the automatic brake valve when he jumped out
>>>> of the way. I don't think the nose of the F-40 was 20 feet away.  What's
>>>> the
>>>> point of even reporting this sort of thing??????? Hopefully to keep others
>>>> from making such foolish mistakes. I told my condeuctor that one day we'd
>>>> make official reports of all such events - in one RT Miami to West Palm
>>>> Beach & back (140 miles / 70 each way & 70 grade crossings of 6 lanes or
>>>> more) we wrote up 18 incidents....trespassers, cars running around gates,
>>>> SCHOOLBUS stopped on tracks & gate coming down on top of it.  I assume most
>>>> of us don't hear about 1/2 of these incidents. Most guys after running iin
>>>> a
>>>> densely builtup urban area want to go home & crash - not make out reports.
>>>> Besides as one of my fellow engineers put it "The company will be mad at
>>>> us".
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Be a Locomotive Engineer:
>>> Its the most fun you can have with 3000 HP
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
>>> Sponsored by the ELH&TS
>>> http://www.elhts.org
>> 
>> 



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