Talk Elections

Wow.

I was peacefully coming back from the university in Frankfurt and all of a sudden, the operator started honking frantically and jammed on the brakes. A few seconds later, there was a very loud noise and violent movement. I was half convinced the train would derail.

Apparently someone intentionally (or not? The press isn't reporting this for some reason and the police weren't giving any information) rode his bicycle onto the track. I imagine it was suicide.

We were "evacuated" as the ambulances and police were arriving.

If it really was suicide, I have to ask myself how someone can do this to someone else. That train engineer may have lifelong psychological problems because of this.

Hard to imagine.

Damn it, that's horrible. :(

That really is terrible. Last week, I was on the train into work and heard someone let out what sounded like a dying moan in the distance. The train was pulling into a station so we weren't moving too quickly but part of me thought someone ran in front of the train. It was really eerie.

I know what you mean when you ask, "What was that person thinking?" if it was a suicide. It's a horrible thing to do especially to the driver but just imagined the pain that person must have been going through.

Yeah, train drivers really hate jumpers. This would be even worse, I guess.

Horrible...like Phil I feel for the pain that person must have been going thru to do this also...

Suicidal people aren't usually thinking about the well being of others given their mental state.

That's awful. I've had dreams about this kind of thing...whether being the one in front of the train or on the train. It's disturbing.

That's horrible.


This is true. My father's friend was killed when he was driving, and someone else committed suicide by swerving in front of his car, hitting him head on.

Wow. Scary stuff...I hope the driver is doing ok.

That's terrible! A bit of a problem on my train line, too. I've had two trains during the evening peak cancelled halfway down the line, where they've cancelled the train and offloaded us all because someone further down the line had been fatally struck (and by evening peak, I usually work back late, so it's generally closer to 7).

First time was accidental - a jogger who crossed the tracks because a train was coming one way, and he ran into the path of one going the other way and was hit from behind. Don't know about the second one.

Two possible solutions - provide euthanasia centers to give the suicidal a more humane and less intrusive way out, or hire people like me as the train drivers.

Firewall breached?

There's so many things wrong with this post.

What does it mean "or hire people like me as the train drivers" ?

That you have some secret super power that makes the train stop right away when you see a potential suicidal person in your way ?

Or that you are looking up porn on your laptop while driving the train and if some person jumps in front of the train you just say: "What was that ? A small stone ? Who cares ?" and drive on.

???

Anyway, a very sad story if true Franzl. Anything in the news yet (even though if it's not in the news and at the police site, it was probably a suicide then because they usually never publish that) ?

I spent a year dealing with claims related to 'jumpers' brought by train drivers in my current job. It really is the most horrible thing reading their statements. Train drivers know they are responsible for every passenger (as they are) and seeing someone on the track while travelling at speed means that often drivers have to maintain speed,(even if a slight brake could give the person on the tracks a split second chance) as the lives of several hundred people in the carriages behind them are at stake. They have to fight their natural reflexes which leaves them with a sense of guilt,

It's also a tough job for those employed to walk the tracks and bag the body, or indeed the body parts.

What does it mean, Seatown?  Are you controlling my computer?


I meant sociopaths.

In what way would a slight brake put the passengers' lives in danger? The risk of another train launching itself into the last few carriages of the first one?

Been there, done that, 21 years ago in the Walloon countryside.

And then again, but this time nonfatally (and a drunk's accident rather than a suicide), less than six weeks later in Wiesbaden.

Were you in Michigan?  Because this happened in metro-Detroit yesterday...

I meant that you breached the mods firewall.

That's horrible.

I actually read a story about a subway passenger in 1970s who suddenly pulled the emergency brake for no particular reason. It turned out that there was a guy on the track who survived due to that passenger's urge.

Nothing so Romantic. Someone approved the post to be seen, that's all.

An insurgent among the mods? We had some interesting posts approved in a past couple days.