Another pedestrian...
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We had train tracks run through the neighborhood where I grew up.
The tracks were clearly off limits, you had to hop a fence and overgrown shrubs to get on the tracks.
I remember one death and one missing leg. There were probably more hits. It was a tempting location.
A small section:
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I live near the BNSF "raceway." Triple track through town. It's a major thoroughfare for commuter and freight traffic, not to mention the dozen or so Amtrak trains that roll through - at high speed.
The commuter rail alone sees 56 (!) trains in a 24 hour period.
Our 1-mile-square town has 5 places where you cross the tracks.
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We did some really stupid stuff around railway lines when I was a kid. We'd hang around the railway bridge up this country lane drinking hard-cider with predictable results - there were service holes in the ground between the tracks and we'd hide in them after having put pennies on the line. Darwin must have been taking a break or something.
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I don't get it either why people feel the need to rush around flashing lights/barriers, etc.
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Had a friend whose dad was terminally ill and going blind. The dad got into his wife's car, drove to the end of the driveway (they lived off of a fairly busy two-lane highway) and sat there idling for several minutes. When he could tell there was a big truck coming, he pulled right out in front of it. There was no way the truck loaded with logs could stop. The dad was killed in a twisted ball of sheet metal.
My friend and his sister both thought their dad committed suicide and did so in a way that the life insurance would not question.
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One of the saddest was about 20 years ago. Some kids decided that, rather than walking along the street to get to the local high school, they would walk along the RR tracks, crossing the river at the bridge. Apparently, they didn't hear the train approaching from behind (headphones) and they were struck while on the bridge. The school is about ⅓ of a mile from the river - a 5 minute walk.
@George-K said in Another pedestrian...:
Apparently, they didn't hear the train approaching from behind (headphones) and they were struck while on the bridge.
Wearing headphones while crossing a railroad bridge is... still sad. But it's hard to do something more stupid than that.
