Train kills 3 teen girls crossing Florida bridge

[Railwaymodeler]

Link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100221/ap_ ... edestrians

Look at the comments blaming the engineer!

Railroad tracks, and usually 20 feet from either railhead outward, are private property, and as such, the kids died criminals, trespassers.

If anything, the railroad, and specifically, the train crew, ought to sue the parents for emotional trauma to the crew, disrupting rail traffic (Which I would then consider interference with commerce), and criminal trespassing.

Personally, if I were running the train, I would have kicked it up to notch 8, that way the inevitable kill is a bit more swift and humane, rather than trying to stop a freight, and risking 'only' paralyzing the kids. Of course, we know how that would play in the current US legal system.

EDIT: The comments are not on yahoo news, but in the link that Yahoo news provides at the bottom of the article.

[Dave]

This is incredibly sad.

[Brianetta]

Railwaymodeler, I think the parents are being punished enough by the fact that their daughters are dead. Your comments are, to put it very lightly, insensitive.

[Kevo00]

Maybe I'm just being dense, but I don't see anyone in that article blaming the engineer.

This is quite tragic and its a little harsh to call kids that may have not known any better criminals. Don't forget they were 'punished' with their lives, hardly appropriate even by US standards. I wonder how much education they had been given about the dangers of tresspassing on railroads?

[Dave]

I'm all for handing out Darwin awards to those making idiotic moves around traffic, but let's not forget people that we know and loved might have been in a similar spot mate... You wouldn't be saying anything like that if it was your daughter.

[SD89MAC]

It's these sorts of tragedies that Operation Lifesaver seeks to prevent.

[Dave]

It's just horrendously unfortunate that they've done it at that time. It's just all a bit unfortunate.

[teccuk]

Depressing. Nice breakfast time reading

Start the day on a high note eh.

[audigex]

"We don't make the news, just report it."

Incredibly sad, it just goes to show how important good education and well maintained fences are. Step 1, explain why they shouldn't. Step 2, try to stop them anyway.

Unfortunately, kids will be kids. It's all too easy to blame the parents, but how many of you never did anything wrong when you were a child? I spent half my childhood in places I shouldn't, while my parents thought I was in a friends house under their parents' watchful eyes.

[PikkaBird]

It's not just kids who do things like this. Three guys in their 20s died near here on the weekend after falling off a cliff - apparently they got drunk, climbed over a safety fence, then had a fight on the edge. We all did silly things as kids (including walking along active railway lines, in my case), and some of us are lucky to still be here, but there's just no helping some people.

[caveatemptor]

Railroad tracks, and usually 20 feet from either railhead outward, are private property, and as such, the kids died criminals, trespassers.

This is a highly in appropriate statement I think. Calling people who wander onto privately owned property "criminals", even if legally correct, is quite extreme. I would be surprised if you have never entered privately owned property without the permission of the owner.

If you sped up with the intention of killing these girls you would spend many years behind bars and rightly so.

[ostlandr]

I would. If my only child were to get herself killed that way, of course I would probably die of grief. But I would also be very, very ashamed that she a.) got herself into that situation, and b.) froze like a deer in the headlights or ran along the track rather than stepping across to the ties of the parallel bridge or jumping into the water. Or best case, grab her frozen-in-the-headlights friends and tackle them off the bridge.
As Heinlein put it: "Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without mercy." But to sue the parents would just be cruel. For example, New York state doesn't go after the estates of drivers in fatal crashes for accident damages to guide rail, traffic signals, signs, etc.

I'm all for handing out Darwin awards to those making idiotic moves around traffic, but let's not forget people that we know and loved might have been in a similar spot mate... You wouldn't be saying anything like that if it was your daughter.

[noofnoof]

I agree with ostlander.

sueing the parents is a stupid and insensitive thing to do, however I get really annoyed when someone dies being stupid on railway tracks, then the blame the driver or company.

[Dave]

I would. If my only child were to get herself killed that way, of course I would probably die of grief. But I would also be very, very ashamed that she a.) got herself into that situation, and b.) froze like a deer in the headlights or ran along the track rather than stepping across to the ties of the parallel bridge or jumping into the water. Or best case, grab her frozen-in-the-headlights friends and tackle them off the bridge.
As Heinlein put it: "Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without mercy." But to sue the parents would just be cruel. For example, New York state doesn't go after the estates of drivers in fatal crashes for accident damages to guide rail, traffic signals, signs, etc.

I'm all for handing out Darwin awards to those making idiotic moves around traffic, but let's not forget people that we know and loved might have been in a similar spot mate... You wouldn't be saying anything like that if it was your daughter.

Sorry mate, but when you've had loved ones who've been there and done that and "frozen like a deer in the headlights" or even worse not had the time to react at all, I don't think you'd be anywhere near ashamed.

These are just more insensitive comments borne out of anger regarding flippant and superfluous media comments that probably exaggerate the truth beyond any sort of measure. I really don't think you appreciate the gravity of the situation. I think a number of members of this forum will be able to tell you - I do, and believe me the last thing I thought of her was shame. Heartless comments like these aren't relevant to the discussion, and aren't helpful to anyone.

[John]

b.) froze like a deer in the headlights or ran along the track rather than stepping across to the ties of the parallel bridge or jumping into the water. Or best case, grab her frozen-in-the-headlights friends and tackle them off the bridge.

Let me introduce you to fear - in the face of fear, people almost always freeze. Rational thought and logic fly out the window.
If you are lucky, you will "unfreeze" and click back into reality in time to do something sensible - however this can easily take more then a few seconds, which could be too late.

Finally, grabbing friends and hurling them off bridges just in time is what happens in movies - in real life things don't go so well, you get other injuries like hypothermia and broken spines.


This is indeed a tragic story and god only knows what the poor parents are going through, and indeed what the poor boy who saw 3 of his friends get killed is going through. This is a tragedy that will have shocked the community - one can only hope it will teach others the perils of playing on tracks.

The only way of preventing this is education and education. But unfortunately, kids will be kids.

[Kevo00]

Ashamed? Oh please. I think its ridiculous to think that parents will be thinking 'oh if only she had jumped onto the other bridge but she was too stupid, I'm really ashamed of that.' Don't forget, the parents have paid a very high price here.

[KeikyuFan]

This is incredibly sad.

Think of it as Nature's way of culling the herd. Pure Darwinism in action...

[Dave]

This is incredibly sad.

Think of it as Nature's way of culling the herd. Pure Darwinism in action...

In future, refer to any of the previous posts before stupidly responding.

And when you have a moment of stupidity, don't expect me to care if it means it's "nature's way of culling the herd".

Pillock.

[KeikyuFan]

This is incredibly sad.

Think of it as Nature's way of culling the herd. Pure Darwinism in action...

In future, refer to any of the previous posts before stupidly responding.

And when you have a moment of stupidity, don't expect me to care if it means it's "nature's way of culling the herd".

Pillock.

Well, EXCUSE ME, Mister Self-Appointed Arbiter of all that is Politically Correct, but here's a fact of life for you: stupid people do stupid things, and eventually pay the consequences. I spent several years as a photojournalist, covering the weekend beats for a large metropolitan newspaper in Southern California (over 1 million circulation at one time), and unfortunately, I have rolls and rolls of 35mm negatives in my archives showing the rather graphic results of people doing stupid and senseless stuff: driving drunk, shooting each other, ripping off copper wire from live power lines, idiots walking on railroad tracks. More than once I have pitched in to help lift some hunk of flesh that only a few hours earlier had been a breathing human being. Sorry, but there are genuine victims out there - people who are murdered, killed by drunk drivers, etc. I stopped shedding tears for people doing stupid stuff a long time ago. Sure, it sickens me, but my outward displays of sentiment are limited to things like throwing up instead...

[JamieLei]

Well, EXCUSE ME, Mister Self-Appointed Arbiter of all that is Politically Correct, but here's a fact of life for you: stupid people do stupid things, and eventually pay the consequences. I spent several years as a photojournalist, covering the weekend beats for a large metropolitan newspaper in Southern California (over 1 million circulation at one time), and unfortunately, I have rolls and rolls of 35mm negatives in my archives showing the rather graphic results of people doing stupid and senseless stuff: driving drunk, shooting each other, ripping off copper wire from live power lines, idiots walking on railroad tracks. More than once I have pitched in to help lift some hunk of flesh that only a few hours earlier had been a breathing human being. Sorry, but there are genuine victims out there - people who are murdered, killed by drunk drivers, etc. I stopped shedding tears for people doing stupid stuff a long time ago. Sure, it sickens me, but my outward displays of sentiment are limited to things like throwing up instead...

But has YOUR wife/girlfriend/sister been killed by a train/bus/lorry? I'm fully with Dave - no more unsympathetic comments on here.