Train kills 3 teen girls crossing Florida bridge

[Kevo00]

This is incredibly sad.

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

Doesn't stop it being sad though.

Its so interesting that this topic has split along transatlantic lines.

[JamieLei]

This is incredibly sad.

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

Doesn't stop it being sad though.

Its so interesting that this topic has split along transatlantic lines.

Would that be the same lines that make Americans passionately believe that having everybody carrying guns increases safety and actually reduces the number of homicides?!

[noofnoof]

a) yes I'd be F'in cut to bits if one of my friends died. in this manner or not. I'd be massively cut to bits if I was the guy and I saw mah bitches die like that.

b) urgh don't get me started on firearms in America.

[Dave]

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.

The fact remains that he quoted the second post on the page. Thanks for reading the rest first.

KeikyuFan still hasn't answered responded to what I said either - when you have a moment of insanity - as every human being does - I will be the first in line to point out that stupidity is rewarded with death, á la Darwinism. Does that sound okay to you?

Stupid people do stupid things, but intelligent people do stupid things too. If there's a single train a day on a railway line I'd think nothing of taking a shortcut along it. And then, ah... There's a train and there's no way I'm getting away from it. Whoops, gone.

You're being overly insensitive for the sake of looking all big and clever; no one cares if you've been there and done that pal, if it really meant that much you wouldn't talk about it.

And there's nothing politically correct about telling people to stop being twattish. Do you vote Republican or do you just come across as a ponce?

[John]

but here's a fact of life for you: stupid people do stupid things, and eventually pay the consequences.

And here's a fact of life for you: ALL humans make mistakes.


You're post proves it.






Q.E.D

[KeikyuFan]

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.

I have had one sister, a couple of other family members, and a half a dozen friends during my life killed by doing stupid, reckless things. One of my best friends from my childhood went drinking and boating and wound up drowning his infant child, and had the NERVE to sue the marina that rented the boat for his child's death. I'm burned out on shedding tears for people who can't get their acts together, and I get outraged when people in my lawsuit-happy country want to look for "deep pockets" for reparations when they (or the deceased) were the sole ones responsible for their predicament. 6 billion people on this planet, a few here and there won't be missed...

[Brianetta]

KeikyuFan, you are endearing yourself to nobody. Is that actually your intention?

[KeikyuFan]

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

Doesn't stop it being sad though.

Its so interesting that this topic has split along transatlantic lines.

Would that be the same lines that make Americans passionately believe that having everybody carrying guns increases safety and actually reduces the number of homicides?!

It might be along the same lines that people who have free will need to accept consequences for their own actions.

Life's short and sometimes life's cruel. It's not like I told them to walk on the tracks.

[KeikyuFan]

KeikyuFan still hasn't answered responded to what I said either

It's not like I'm expected to be at your beck and call, standing around waiting for some insufferable windbag like you to post, so I can respond. Unlike some of you, I have adult commitments like a job. Open TTD is a nice diversion when I have some spare time on an occasional evening, but it's not like it's my freaking life.

You're being overly insensitive for the sake of looking all big and clever; no one cares if you've been there and done that pal,

I could say the same thing about you and your silly personal website where you gush and wail over some event in your own life. You really want me to go there?

And there's nothing politically correct about telling people to stop being twattish. Do you vote Republican or do you just come across as a ponce?

I gather you like insulting people's ASSUMED political affiliation and/or sexual orientation when you're eight time zones away. I'll keep that in mind if I make it to the UK for one of those open meets later this year...

[Dave]

I've read this post and I agree with all the above.

You're still a complete hinge though.

[ostlandr]

Looking back on my post, I was being very insensitive.

Humans being a very heterogeneous species, not everybody has that particular hardwired reaction that makes everything slow down in a crisis so they have time to react. Lots of people- my Lady Wife included- tend to freeze up in such situations. Others tend to panic- as the rhyme goes, "When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." It's the same situation when the accelerator malfunctions on a car. Some people freeze, some people panic, and some people just calmly shift to neutral and/or shut the engine down and stop safely.

One's inborn or learned response to a sudden emergency has NO correlation to one's basic intelligence, or one's value as a person.

As to split-second heroics "only happening in the movies" I respectfully disagree. A gentleman of my acquaintance was driving a truck whose brakes failed. Having only seconds to react, he chose not to cross the highway and hit a car head on. Realizing that the excavator blocking the road ahead had a large overhang, he grabbed his passenger (who was frozen like a deer in the headlights), pushed him to the floor of the cab and lay on top of him. A split-second later, the windshield was pushed through the back of the cab. The truck was totalled. The driver and passenger escaped serious injury.

[Railwaymodeler]

Looking back on this topic, I am not sure why I was so cruel to those killed by the train. Don't remember if it was an 'off' day, pain meds going through me (They make me real grouchy), or what. Still, it makes me wonder, why is it so many kids don't respect the power of a train?

We had an accident on the Metra commuter rail line recently, where four people crossed the tracks to get to the platform, right in front of the train. Part of the camera footage from the locomotive cab, was released to the media. The fourth and last person to cross the tracks, was carrying a baby and both died under the wheels.

I simply cannot believe that people will risk all, to save maybe 20 minutes.

Now, having said all that, do I belive the girls crossing the bridge really deserved to die? No. Do I belive in not stopping when a person walks in front of the train? Mostly, but only when it is 100% that the train will not stop in time. My thoughts are for a clean, swift hit, where the person feels no pain in the last seconds, which, to me, is more merciful than a slower death, where if hit at say, 30 miles per hour, the victim doesn't die immediatly, but suffers tremendously in the last few minutes of their life.

But that is more philosophy than I care to get into. And it will never work that way in real life, as the law has its say too.

[noofnoof]

I'm pretty sure that if you don't do everything within your power to attempt to not hit the people, the law will bite you badly.

[John]

I'm pretty sure that if you don't do everything within your power to attempt to not hit the people, the law will bite you badly.

Not quite - sometimes doing everything in your power could lead to something much worse. The law tends to look more at your actions and ask if they were reasonable giving the circumstances (at least it should do, until the lawyers arrive).