Beverly, MA RR Crossing Fatality

MBTA, I think your sarcasm detector might have accidentially been switched off.

This is a tough one for me....on the one hand, this kid, supposedly quite bright for his age , rode around the crossing gates( some accounts also say he also had headphones on ...another dumb no-no....) so I have a hard time feeling that sorry for him. HOWEVER.....
Horn/whistle bans are just plain freaking STUPID!!!! Period. The mother should go after these brain-dead Yuppie morons, tooth and claw !!!(BLAST....HORN......Arrrggghh!!!....someone obviously had waaayyyyyy too much free time on their hands). Oh...throw that clueless sack-of shite Mayor in for good measure. Even after someone dies, he STILL supports horn bans. Maybe the kid still would have bought it, even if the horns were blaring, but maybe,just maybe ...it would have been enough to make him think twice and save his life.
One thing I will stress: There needs to be a strong, concerted effort to educate kids about how dangerous taking chances around railroads can be. Operation LifeSaver, or a state sponsored initiative...whatever. It needs to be done , and done soon , before we lose another young life needlessly.

Even if the kid had headphones, he would have heard, even felt, the horn. If he saw the train, the sheer noise of the horn may have made him think twice.

If noise is an issue, and no one wants horns blown, then have the trains do 5MPH thru town, slow enough to do minimal damage, even stop short. Explain to the commuters, in the interests of safety, and in deferrence to the town residents, their commute times will be somewhat longer...

I say cameras in every cab. Make them portable like FREDs are to limit the number needed, and record only the last couple minutes digitally. That will provide an instant record of any crossing accidents or any wrecks, much like an airliner's black box.

One saying they don't like the sounds of train whistles in their town, is similar to saying: "I don't like seeing the colors red, yellow, or green. Let's put a ban on traffic lights and stop signs in our town....."

You have to understand that the working idea here is, "quality of life issues", for the pampered people of the "Fahms", Prides Crossing, Manchester-By-The-Sea, etc. Quality of THEIR life, not someone who gets smushed under a train. Even when the young lad got clocked a few weeks ago, these stalwart citizens referred to the incident as "unfortunate", but continued to insist on retaining their silent neighborhoods! In a recent meeting with the FRA and MBTA officials at "M-B-T-S", the two groups (H.O.R.N. and B.L.A.S.T.) reaffirmed their issues with raucous train horn noise, urging that the entire city of Beverly remain a no-horns zone. On next April Fools Day, the FRA will make its decision.... a perfectly appropriate date for such an issue to be resolved.