Railroad Forums
Moderator: Jeff Smith
YOUR safety responsibility is YOURS, and YOURS alone. While I sympathize with this young man on his loss, the responsibility is HIS and HIS alone! "Walking along with headphones"??????? And he expects a train to HEAR him with whatever volume HE has chosen??? The absolute lack of gray matter, even common sense, is just 0( Worse, it is OUR FAULT for abdicating our responsibilities as parents. We have taught our children, as a whole, that everything is someone else's fault, someone else's problem, and we should be PAID for our mistakes even if the cause of the accident is ours, and ours alone. How sad that we now are expert "blame shifters" and expect innocent people to PAY for our stupidity. Our society thinks the mean old railroad has "deep pockets" and is responsible for US! If I were a railroad CEO, I'd fight this with all my being on PRINCIPLE! As a retired railroad employee, having been IN the cabs of freight and fast passenger engines, I cannot describe the horror of watching someone walking on the tracks oblivious to our presence, or seeing someone racing us to the crossing determined to beat us. It is the most helpless feeling! We can't do anything about it; we can't stop quickly. I've seen big burly engineers sitting on the steps of their engine with big tears in their eyes after having hit a car that had small kids in it. We are NOT heartless brutes.Gadfly wrote:On a jury, I would NOT punish the innocent and reward the GUILTY!Unfortunately that is not the way the cases get judged, in spite of the law. Witness the family's suit against CSX in the death of their daughter in the movie incident at Doctortown, GA on the Altahama River Bridge. Movie company had permission DENIED TWICE IN WRITING to occupy CSX property, yet the award found CSX contributory. Of course, among those sued - CSX was the only one that had any money.
GF
It makes me MAD that people think the source of our livelihoods is some mean old villain just waiting to run over some poor, poor idiot without the brains to make capable judgements for themselves. If I were a CEO, especially on cases such as brainless fools who think they are "entitled" to something because they made a STUPID decision to TRESPASS on PRIVATE property. I'd fight 'em to H*ll and back!MCL1981 wrote:Logic doesn't apply to anything anymore since the concept of personal responsibility went out the window. When they started giving out participation trophies to the teams that lost in little league, and pretending everyone is right when they're wrong so as not to hurt their feelings, it was all over. I put a dash camera in my personal vehicle, and it's recording the moment I turn the key. If some idiot strolls out into the path of my moving vehicle, whether in another vehicle or on foot, the video will not lie. The feral children or irresponsible adults can claim whatever they want.And CSX shouldn't be on ANY "hook" at all. If I break into someone's house, I am TRESPASSING along with other criminal charges. It is ILLEGAL to trespass on railroad property, ergo the kid (and any other person who encroaches there) was violating Federal laws. I sympathize with his plight, but it is NOT the railroad's
If I drove a train, I would probably carry my own dash camera in the train just for BS like this. The company's camera wasn't working, and now these poor guys are on the hook for someone else's lie.
