by AFTower
Hello,all. This is a situation engineers and motormen face every time we climb up into the cab. This has been happening for more than one hundred years and unfortunately I don't ever see it stopping!
With suicides, locomotive engineers long haunted by horror, helplessness
(The following story by Steve Hendrix appeared on the Washington Post website on October 2, 2009. Bruce Evans is Legislative Representative of BLET Division 14 in Washington, D.C. John Tolman is the BLET’s National Vice President & National Legislative Representative.)
[EDIT - Do not copy and paste entire articles, please provide brief summary and link to the original. -omv]
With suicides, locomotive engineers long haunted by horror, helplessness
(The following story by Steve Hendrix appeared on the Washington Post website on October 2, 2009. Bruce Evans is Legislative Representative of BLET Division 14 in Washington, D.C. John Tolman is the BLET’s National Vice President & National Legislative Representative.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bruce Evans has learned to look away. Hoping to keep his mind free of yet another image that will linger for a lifetime, he has learned to avert his eyes as his train barrels down on a person on the tracks. In 20 years at the controls of Amtrak locomotives, Evans has watched a dozen fatalities unfold in agonizing close-up. "After the first time you strike somebody, you just turn your head and wait for the impact," said Evans, an engineer based out of Washington's Union Station. The first one was sitting on a quiet stretch of rail near Weldon, N.C., a man ignoring Evans's frantic horn blasts, waiting for a locomotive roaring at 75 mph to end his despair. "When I looked in the mirror, he was tumbling in the air, just flying," Evans said. "I can see it as clearly as if it was happening in front of me right now."
[EDIT - Do not copy and paste entire articles, please provide brief summary and link to the original. -omv]