Tragic turn of events....

Everyone has thought about "Hopping a freight", and there are groups of executive yuppies, who as weekend warriors go out searching for a stopped freight.

When I worked for the railroad, I could never even manage to hop up the 5 foot distance into the boxcars when they were standing still, let alone when the roadbed was lower than the ties.

This is the most dangerous act, and should never be done by anyone.

Hundereds of YouTube videos show these stupid acts, as friends video tape the "hopper's".

The FTRA is just one a band of RR gangs & houdlums that also are deadly.

Hopping just doesn't make sence !
 
Well, that's what you get for trying to hop aboard a moving train.

Satur said he didn't know if the female would be cited.
"She's got enough issues to worry about," he said.

I would think so; although I think she, and her friends, should be charged, I agree that losing your legs is a high penalty to pay.

Matt.
 
Foolish behaviour in the extreme. I like the pragmatic approach of the police officer towards the now legless girl. "I don't know if she'll be cited, she's got enough issues to worry about."

I don't think I or many others could ever consider hopping a freight. I can only get into the loco in my sig using the ladders provided and that's nowhere near the height of US rolling stock.
 
I can't believe something like this happened. Two words-

COMMON SENSE

I'm just wondering how fast the train was going.
 
Really?

How stupid can you be? BNSF will still get sued somehow or another...

Well needless to say this thread will be closed soon.
 
The speed limit is 25 m/h going through Loveland. The tracks run through the center of town - and through the middle of the CSU campus. Every year there are at least a couple of incidents - often fatal. Suicide by train is perhaps the most horrific. Walked out of my lab last year and saw one of these. I often see people on the cars - it's very common. Stupid act of the year/Darwin Award candidate - guy on a bike holding onto the side of a boxcar getting a boost.
 
The speed limit is 25 m/h going through Loveland. The tracks run through the center of town - and through the middle of the CSU campus. Every year there are at least a couple of incidents - often fatal. Suicide by train is perhaps the most horrific. Walked out of my lab last year and saw one of these. I often see people on the cars - it's very common. Stupid act of the year/Darwin Award candidate - guy on a bike holding onto the side of a boxcar getting a boost.

That is disturbing. I should hope law enforcement would pay more attention to this trend in that area, and perhaps the railroad has a responsibility to be more involved with prevention as well.
 
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Its a good thing this didn't happen in Montclair with an NJT train.

Montclair would've come down on NJT like a bomb.
Back on topic...

Every person that isn't a railfan thinks that its the train's fault. Two Words: IT'S NOT
They were obviously drunk, and a freight train can't stop like a car or a truck. It takes a MILE for a long freight train to stop. Plus, it was probably a quiet zone but every makes like a baby and says "He did it!" as in saying the train intentionally hit them.

Since WHEN does a train hit someone on purpose??? Never, but stuck-up towns just SAY that so they can sue the railroad.

So I hope all the people that blame trains for hitting people heard me loud and clear.
 
I don't see anyone pointing fingers at the railroad, I only suggest that if this is common in the area the railroad does have a certain amount of responsibility to take whatever reasonable precautions they can, such as maintaining fences and barriers on their ROW. Local law enforcement also should pay attention in the area (and I'm sure they probably are). No one can stop someone intent on doing something foolish, if that were so, there would be far fewer marriages than occur now!:D
 
I get nervous when stepping off a moving car or locomotive. While we are permitted to do so at the Loop, 99.9% of the time I just have the engineer stop so I can climb off, its safer and easier.
 
What happened to personal responsibility? Unless the female can prove that the men forced her to join them in the stupid behavior, in which case she should sue them. Otherwise she should be thankful to still be alive to talk about it.
 
This is one of those incidents where you should and shouldn't feel sorry for the victims. You should because, she lost her legs but yet you shouldn't because it was her being stupid and attempting to hop onto a moving freight train.
 
This is one of those incidents where you should and shouldn't feel sorry for the victims. You should because, she lost her legs but yet you shouldn't because it was her being stupid and attempting to hop onto a moving freight train.

I have to agree. Its sad to see someone do something so stupid at such a young age, that it will cripple her for the rest of her life.

I'm sad that she got hurt, but I think she learned her lesson....
 
Chalk it up to youthful innocence. If she was trying to swing on board, then the train was probably moving at a walking pace, if not slower, and in theory you could swing on board easily. However, i've tried swinging aboard a stopped boxcar at a local museum (it had it's doors open) and it's hard. I couldn't grab the ladder, and trying to lever myself onto the deck of the boxcar wasn't any easier. If the train was moving, she would have had a hard time doing it.

However, i'm betting she had done this before, so she probably thought she could do it with no problem. but, on a railway, if you just slip up once, you get sucked under the wheels and are now sans both your legs. stupidity pays...hard.
 
I have to say this has crossed my mind in the past, when I would just love to hop aboard a freight train and see where it takes me...

But when you stand on the station platform, and those freight trains come whizzing past at 75MPH, all previous thoughts of hopping on a freight train vanish, and the frieght train ride never happens, but it would just be nice to follow these freight trains and see where they end up...

Maybe, they should do a t.v programme about freight trains and where they go, then all thought's of hopping on one will vanish...

I know the Americans done a tv show on freight and where it goes in "Extreme Trains", but there was nothing in Britain ever filmed like this, and I think a show like "Extreme Trains UK", would be brilliant. It would also show the dangers of railways, for example hopping, electrification, level crossings and so on...

And to anyone who actually does this "hopping" thing, well, I think they are crazy...

Joe Airtime
 
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