Please, Please Stay Away From Railroad Tracks

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Christmastime is often when people unite in marriage. Lately, there have been many couples -- even in winter -- who have had their pictures taken on or near tracks. That is an extremely dangerous practice.

Just today, there was a fatality near Amarillo. I just heard from one of the crewman on that train. The person was standing on the tracks shooting at a target. He apparently never heard the train coming because he was wearing earplugs. It is impossible to stop a train in a short distance. The crewman feels terrible, even though the crew was in no way at fault, and asked me to run this.

And, that brings me to another victim and that is the crew. Whenever a train hurts someone, the crew is often haunted by the experience even though there is nothing they can do.

Please, please, please don't ruin your holiday or your wedding. Stay off railroad tracks!!

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 20, 2013 at 6:47 AM

    Amen! Trains/freight cars are often remarkably quiet: If routinely braking, there will be little engine "roar". Welded rail has eliminated the formerly ubiquitous "clickety-clack". In large freight yards, cars are sorted by rolling down a "hump" under gravity and move almost as quietly as ghosts. The use of whistles is much reduced from former times as railroad crews rely on radio to communicate and as communities have increasingly insisted on "quiet zones" to eliminate train whistling at highway/street intersections with railroad tracks.

    Ironically, it seems the new "ubiquities" of railroad trespassers (and that is what anyone is who not authorized to be on railroad property) are headsets/earbuds and cell phones. The combination of quiet railroads and oblivious trespassers is an increasingly frequent tragedy.

    Never trespass on railroad property! Look, Listen, and Live!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike SmithJanuary 19, 2014 at 8:09 PM

    It has happened again a month after this posting: http://www.king5.com/news/local/Amtrak-train-hits-person-near-Auburn-241030611.html?c=n&fb=y&can=n

    ReplyDelete

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