This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.
This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
When I used to ride CalTrain
CW: suicide
most of the fatalities were stressed high school kids jumping in front of the train on purpose
I expect something like that also occasionally happens with Brightline.
per the COC thread that CW should be for suicide rather than self-harm as those are different things and non-suicidal self-harm is common
edited
What a fucking awful way to die. I can’t imagine choosing to go like that.
It’s probably very quick but scary for a couple of seconds. Those poor fucking engineers on the other hand.
CW- personal experience involving exactly this
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.