PLEASE stay off the tracks!!

[MasonJar]

How many times do we have to say it...?

Last week, the inquest into the death of a girl crossing the tracks in Brockville (I think) - which is just down the road from Kingston), concluded that all rolling stock in North America must be fitted with reflective tape. Now this...

http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot-train20060505.html

How loud does a music player have to be that you do not hear a TRAIN HORN?

Andrew

 

[Scoobie]

Loud music

That is a great question MasonJar. I know everyday I see ( hear ) cars driven by teenagers ( new drivers ) with music so loud it vebrates my car. They drive around in thier own loud world not paying attention or caring about anything or anybody. There should be a law on " how loud does it have to be ", just like any other moving violation. Maybe there is and our great law inforcement is too busy with other things. To bad people have to be killed before we use our heads. I'm not going to get started on cell phones and cars.

 

[shaygetz]

If Canadian litigation is anything like American, the railroad'll have to fork over $2.2 million for its part in the accident because the train wasn't fitted with a horn loud enough to be heard over the Walkman.

 

[Knighthawk]

I remember, about four or five years ago watching a documentary on this very subject, and several engineers were interviewed, and they all said the same thing. On each and every cross country trip that they made, they hit an average of five cars, because of loud music, or idiots trying to beat the train. Here in London, a young man was killed crossing the tracks between two cars on a stopped train, and was crushed when the train started to move again. Of course his family won a tidy sum from the resulting lawsuit. That just shows how backward the judicial system can be here at times.

 

[farmer ron]

Yes I hear it all the time..Its always someone elses fault..
Scoobie..was working two nites ago.. a 17year old new driver, only had her drivers licence since Dec 05..driving down a strait portion of road..looking down dialing her cell phone .. and as not paying attention..the vehicle wandered over to the right and into the bike path beside the road.. hit a 33 year old mother of two and killed her..the comment that was made by the young driver was that the bicyclist should have seen me and got out of my way.. they think they are imortal and never make mistakes..a sad lesson when reality kicks in if it does..Ron..

 

[N Gauger]

Scoobie - cool avatar!!

 

[N Gauger]

As far as what's been said here about the possible litigation - I agree, some lawyer will always take that case

Scoobie.... here in the North Eastern US - one-by-one all communities and cities are putting a "Noise Reduction" law on their books... The problem is, that it's mostly the small towns that are pulling people over. I guess because they get the most complaints from residents.. In the cities, as far as I know, you have to be pulled over for something else, then they can get you for the seatbelts... noise.... cell phones etc...

If this causes someone's death (or many deaths) - it doesn't matter too much... The reason???? They get way too many calls a day to worry about the "trivial" things like loud music or seatbelts...

 

[2-8-2]

Mikey's right.

I live in a very rural area, as the largest city within 20 miles has about 25,000 people. My hometown has around 2,000...and is one of the larger towns in this area. Noise ordinances are generally enforced simply because the police have nothing better to do. There is no "real" crime here. I know a lot of people who still don't even lock their doors at night.

It's amazing how "justice" is served sometimes. In my mind, people who risk their lives by doing stupid things are cleansing the gene pool. It doesn't make sense that a railroad should get sued because someone got smashed trying to squeeze between cars, or was walking near the tracks with music blaring in his ears. The same thing goes with gun manufacturers being sued by families. It'd be like sueing Ford because they built the car that killed someone in an accident.

 

[zedob]

...
... It'd be like sueing Ford because they built the car that killed someone in an accident.

I'm sure some slick suit tried that angle before.

I rarely even listen to the radio anymore while driving because I find it distracting to change the channels because like the TV, there's nothing on worth listening to, just a bunch of lame comedy team DJ wanna-be's. I also refuse to answer my cell or talk on it while driving. Too many close calls (oxymoron?) and I feel hipocritical after yelling at the idiot(s) who just missed me because they had their cell cemented to their head while entering into traffic.:curse:

Of course, not all people feel the same or do the same, but it's their choice, good or bad.

 

[Knighthawk]

Mikey's right.

I live in a very rural area, as the largest city within 20 miles has about 25,000 people. My hometown has around 2,000...and is one of the larger towns in this area. Noise ordinances are generally enforced simply because the police have nothing better to do. There is no "real" crime here. I know a lot of people who still don't even lock their doors at night.

It's amazing how "justice" is served sometimes. In my mind, people who risk their lives by doing stupid things are cleansing the gene pool. It doesn't make sense that a railroad should get sued because someone got smashed trying to squeeze between cars, or was walking near the tracks with music blaring in his ears. The same thing goes with gun manufacturers being sued by families. It'd be like sueing Ford because they built the car that killed someone in an accident.

You're right on the money. Some people will not be satisfied until there are fences along both sides of every kilometre of track across the country! Those people should just stop and THINK about how stupid that is. I've also had business owners complain about trains stopped at level crossings keeping customers away. Excuse me, but the railway built this country, and chances are, everything you sell, at one point or another, was transported on one.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

I remember a couple of years ago, one kid had his stereo so amped up, that the headlights and parking lights were diming with the beat of the music. I think I heard him coming, on the highway...Before I saw him.
I keep wondering if thats the kid that got killed a couple of months later, hitting an ambulance on emergency call. Hit in the drivers side door of the kids car. His friends riding in the car said they never heard it coming.
Wonder why?

 

[brakie]

Back in the mid 90s I was railfanning when I heard the locomotives go into emergency,with horns blaring,a run in of slack then this loud crunch and I turn to look and saw ballast flying every where.I knew what had happen from my railroad days..So,several of us went to see if we could help and of course there was little we could do..Anyway as we was approaching this tragic scene we kept hearing this muffled BOOM,BOOM,BOOM and finally realize this was coming from the twisted car..Yup,A loud stereo system with a loud base music(?) Needless to say both teenagers was dead.The Police ask for wittiness and names so I give them mine.Several weeks later I received a letter from a attorney asking what I saw..Here is my reply which I wrote on the back of his letter..

Gates down,lights flashing,locomotive horn blaring and around the gates they went with loud music blaring ..Need I say more?
I never received a thank you note..I guess that attorney wasn't looking for the truth.

 

[N Gauger]

Welcome Aboard Rambler.... Good story... There are way too many stupid people out there that just don't get it......

 

[Relic]

Either I've been living in a very narrow world or people are getting stupider, oh yeah and lazy,they all want someone to take care of them. My good god ...when you have to put a warning on a cup of coffee !!??

 

[N Gauger]

Either I've been living in a very narrow world or people are getting stupider, oh yeah and lazy,they all want someone to take care of them. My good god ...when you have to put a warning on a cup of coffee !!??

My current fav is those Hot Pockets (I don't eat them - but a co-worker does) .... They actually have a warning on them "Caution Contents may be very hot after cooking allow sufficient time to cool" or some such nonsense....
... can you say "DUH!!"

... But you're right - those coffees are hot sometimes... that's (I think) why they call it "Hot Coffee" sign1 sign1 sign1 sign1 sign1

 

[caliban]

There seem's there is no difference between North America and Europe, stupid people can be found everywhere! BTW interesting thread! German law prohibits to loud music in cars and you can get not only a fine for this but also "points". If you've accumulated too much of them you loose your driving licence, for months or longer!
There are only few grade crossing in the area where I live and fewer technicaly unprotected. Two of them are notorious, people fighting since years for a better grade crossing protection. In may 2004 a firefighter was killed on his way to an emergency by a DMU on one of this grade crossings. It was a really tragic accident and not the first accident on this crossing, causing severall dead and injured. After 17 years and that last accident the people in the village made the railroad to spend the 600.000 Euros to rebuild the crossing.

Tobias

Copyright of the pictures: Goettingen Fire Department