Trespasser killed, Pittsfield Ma. - 4/29

Just wondering if there's anymore info on the accident in Pittsfield??
Such a tragic,when a life is lost.

What accident?

Another trespasser nominated himself for the Darwin Award.

http://www.iberkshires.com/story.php?story_id=23090

Another day, another moron.

The Boston Road Foreman of Engines had to download the video tape along with the tapes......no more info as of yet....and usually not much more is revealed. It just irks me how the paper titles the story as Pedestrian gets hit instead of "TRESPASSER".

Unfortunately, trespassing doesn't seem to be a crime anymore, at least in news reporting - a couple of kids went offroading after school here locally, trespassing in an active quarry, and drove right off a newly blasted 40 foot cliff - both died - and the news reports all talk about it being a tragedy and sad and all this. Not one person could say that these kids were out doing something stupid and paid the price for it and that the families are just lucky someone wasn't excavating at the bottom for them to land on and kill and be suing them.

The same thing seems to apply to every report I've seen of a trespasser injured on railroad property.

Not one person could say that these kids were out doing something stupid and paid the price for it

I understand that to deal with the potential of killing someone, you have to become hard to it, but I really disagree with that example. When people trustpass on railroads, it is dangerous and it shouldn't be done, but to say someone deserves to die is a little harsh.

It is a trajedy just as much as it is them in the wrong.

Ok, that being said, how in the world did he manage to miss seeing the HEADLIGHTS AT NIGHT?

At the Howe St bridge over the CSX mainline in Ashland, MA (MP26 or so), there is a stone with a bronze plaque commemorating a teenager who was killed by a train while walking along the tracks. There is no reason to be walking on this stretch of tracks as there are no parks, ball fields, shops, etc abutting the tracks for which crossing the tracks would be a short cut. In fact, the RoW passes through woods and is fenced off on one side. One would only be on the tracks because one wanted to walk the tracks. I cringe everytime I see the plaque.

lvrr325 wrote:Not one person could say that these kids were out doing something stupid and paid the price for it and that the families are just lucky someone wasn't excavating at the bottom for them to land on and kill and be suing them.

The same thing seems to apply to every report I've seen of a trespasser injured on railroad property.

Lawsuit liability. Newspapers don't want to incur libel actions from the families; especially when juror sympathies will be with the deceased.

You have to read between the lines. When you see that a "pedestrian" was killed "along the right-of-way" it's a pretty safe bet the engineer didn't swerve to run him over. He was playing on the tracks, a fool's errand, and he came to a fool's end.

Ditto the kids in the sand pit.

Walk on tracks, get hit by train.

Don't walk on tracks, don't get hit by train.

-otto-