Death in Maryland

Tadman wrote:If kids are taught not to play in the street, why can they play on the tracks? The trains can't steer away and can't stop fast so there's really no safety advantage to playing on the tracks.

If kids are taught not to play in the street, why do so many of them do? Because they're kids. Hell, if anyone here can honestly say they never ignored their parents advice or even good common sense while growing up, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Seriously folks, kids don't always do what they're told to do and will often go out of the way to NOT to do what to do. You can put up fences. They'll go around them. Put up a wall, they'll climb over it.

This is yet another unfortunate tragedy. Let's focus on that and the folks who have to live with it, not the blame.

Seriously folks, kids don't always do what they're told to do and will often go out of the way to NOT to do what to do. You can put up fences. They'll go around them. Put up a wall, they'll climb over it.

Sad but true. Kids think they're indestructible, and some of them cannot be reached by any amount of education, signage, or warning. Society does its part by standing up for their right to be obtuse. Remember the pair of kids in Connecticut who climbed to the top of an Amtrak unit so they could spray paint gang symbols and got electricuted in the process? They lived, sued, and won.

Surviving adolescence is a real challenge. Between driving drunk, OD'ing on drugs, street violence, risky sexual behaviors, motorcycle stunts, and even starting bad long-term habits like smoking and drinking, it just ain't a healthy time. It's a rite of passage that old folks like us forget about over time.

This is a real touchy subject to get involved in but kids will be kids. My biggest fear is hitting a child. As much as parents tell there kids to stay away from tracks or teach their kids about trains they still will not listen. As a child, my father, who was an engineer, could not express to me the importance of staying off the tracks and not to go near them because you never know when or where a train is going to come by or move. Now, as an engineer myself, i appreciate his advice more than ever. You really never do know when or where a train is because they are so quiet and will sneak right up on you. Kids are sometimes inquisitive and want adventure in there lives so they venture on to train tracks. They think its cool or dangerous and have feelings of being invincable, untouchable, or immortal. They use there imaginations and it sometimes gets them caught up in disaster. I can say parents can teach there kids or railroad companies can put up fences but is that really gonna stop this???? You have adults who cant stay off tracks and get killed. SO this really is a serious issue that the public needs to be made aware of. TRAINS WILL KILL YOU. THEY ARE FAST AND QUIET. TRAINS RUN EARLY AND LATE AND ARE UNPREDICTABLE. STAY AWAY FROM TRACKS OR YOU CAN END UP TAKING THE HEAVEN EXPRESS SERIOUSLY......

Can someone explain why the tracks had to be closed for 3 hours? I can understand getting a new crew for the train involved, but it does not take 3 hours to recover a body!

The police have to do survey's and other things due to the fatality involved. Same way with a fatal car accident.

The reason the railroad was shut down is because it is a crime scene. The police and other agencies have to conduct investigations that involve walking across the tracks. Also without going into details and getting too explicit the coroner and police have to find everything....

Is it just kids trespassing ??? i doubt it , i'm sure there's plenty of adults doing it too .
Not making excuses for it , but lets remember , us participents of this forum are well aware of the dangers , but is your average citizen ??? . If you look at it , what about a railroad track screams out danger to you ???
Most lines are not that heavily used , most trains through urban areas are going relatively slow . We know the dangers , but i think it would be wrong to say it is readily apparent to everyone . They think they can get away with it , most times they do .

Who amongst us , can say theyve never done something silly driving on public roads , or known they have taken a risk ???
IMHO , until you can change the medias reporting of these matters , public opinion won't change .

It's a sad state of affairs.

I'm surprised this one didn't make it on here, but in Springfield Township Ohio, 2 kids were struck by an Amtrak train at a crossing heading to school, killing one and maiming the other 5 days before Christmas... a very similar situation to this one.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /912169983

My friend is a teacher at the school - it's been rough for everyone there.

Sadly, googling for this results in a bunch of links to ambulance chasing personal injury lawyers looking to cash in on this... people are sick.

When I was about 12 (I'm 47 now) we moved to a townhouse that was the next-to-the-end unit of a building bordering a branch-line right-of-way. At the time, trains came by a couple of times a day at best and usually around 25 mph.

The kids in the neighborhood (myself included) were told by our parents to not even be CLOSE to the diesel locomotives because we'd get sucked into the engines (like a jet engine intake).

When you're getting told stories like that, it's easy to dismiss real safety instructions.

[soapbox mode on] I am sure that we will see a lawsuit out of this naming everyone in sight... Let's see... we'll sue Amtrak for not having a fence, The town for not forcing Amtrak to have a fence, The School Board for building a school so close to the tracks, The Police Department for not patrolling the area enough, The Engineer for not being able to stop on a dime... and on and on it will go. Each one of these will have to hire a lawyer, and I'll bet at least one of them will settle for something out of court because it would be more expensive to fight it in court. [soapbox mode off]

I DO feel sorry for the girl's family, and for the Train Crew as both have suffered.

n2cbo wrote:[soapbox mode on] I am sure that we will see a lawsuit out of this naming everyone in sight... Let's see... we'll sue Amtrak for not having a fence, The town for not forcing Amtrak to have a fence, The School Board for building a school so close to the tracks, The Police Department for not patrolling the area enough, The Engineer for not being able to stop on a dime... and on and on it will go. Each one of these will have to hire a lawyer, and I'll bet at least one of them will settle for something out of court because it would be more expensive to fight it in court. [soapbox mode off]

I DO feel sorry for the girl's family, and for the Train Crew as both have suffered.

...and sadly none of the above will bring the girl back or erase what has happened

As we all know children will be children its part of life.. I myself have a little sister (now 19 and attending SIU) who's best friend was killed by a Metra train back in grade school in the early 2000s. there school was 2 blocks from a Metra ROW I knew the girl personally and Myself as an avid rail fan warned her and my sister many times about the danger around railroads. I even took them on field trips downtown by train so they understood what there up against. However It just didn't stick. My sister heeds my warnings as she has seen first hand what can happen. Her friend however on a cold winter morning was walking on the Metra track on her way to school with her little brother with her headphones on. Even though her younger brother yelled for her to get off the track when he heard the train coming she did not, she never looked back and was killed right in front of her younger brother. Needless to say all the warnings told to her by her parents, all the warnings I use to preach to them, all the operation lifesaver information they were given 2 years before, the teachers stating all the time for there students to take the long way around and cross the tracks only where crossing gates are, all of it meant nothing and did not help, all the warnings given.. "fell on deaf ears" as the saying goes. Children will take risks no matter how much educational and warning information is presented to them. I agree its surprising more haven't been killed...

with the comment earlier about kids being riskier now than in the past with regards to the railroads, Id like to know if anyone has the data per decade from the 60s, 70, 80, 90s and 2000s on how many individuals under the age of 18 were killed by being hit by trains in each decade.

A quick search found a page showing a steady decline in overall crossing and railroad death rates.
http://www.bts.gov/publications/nationa ... 02_01.html

There may be some better research out there by piecing together individual years.

justalurker66 wrote:A quick search found a page showing a steady decline in overall crossing and railroad death rates.
http://www.bts.gov/publications/nationa ... 02_01.html

There may be some better research out there by piecing together individual years.

Same info of more recent vintage:

http://www.bts.gov/publications/nationa ... 02_01.html

obienick wrote:Can someone explain why the tracks had to be closed for 3 hours? I can understand getting a new crew for the train involved, but it does not take 3 hours to recover a body!

I've seen several train vs. person incidents over the years. In a couple of incidents the recovery was straightforward. In other instances three hours would probably be a minimum. In one case a few years ago on the Lehigh Line in P'Burg, NJ a specialized cleanup contractor was utilized by NS. 'nuff said.