Train Dodging... Stupidity At It's Worst

Just another video demonstrating the stupidity of people who don't fully realize the danger of standing on the tracks.

http://fox8.com/2013/02/07/train-dodging-video-raises-safety-concerns/

OLMSTED TOWNSHIP, Ohio — It’s a dangerous game that could turn deadly: young people recording themselves playing chicken with a train.The Olmsted Township police and the Norfolk Southern Railroad police say they want to find the people before someone gets killed.
“Train dodge, oh goodie,” one of the people says on the video.
Fox 8 is showing the video as a warning of the potentially deadly dangers of a stunt like this.
Police are now trying to track down the young men who recorded themselves playing a game of chicken on railroad tracks.
“Oh, it’s going fast,” says another person in the video as the train sounds its horn.
The young men barely get out of the way before the train speeds by. Investigators believe this video was taken in Olmsted Township. They say the people in the video did it once in October and again last month, then posted the video online.
“The fact that kids are putting these videos out there, they kind of encourage other folks to do the same thing, it just creates the potential for more hazardous situations, where people could be struck and killed,” said Steve Friday.
Friday is the Ohio coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, a national rail safety organization. He says the people in the video were not only a risk to themselves, but to the train and people who live in the area. He says the typical freight train weighs about 12 million pounds and takes at least a mile to come to a stop.
“All that weight shifts forward and it can cause the train to derail,” Friday said.
Alexis Compton and her family live next to the railroad tracks in Olmsted Township. She says she constantly sees people risking their lives on the tracks.
“That doesn’t surprise me much, they ride their dirt bikes around here, they hop on trains just to be funny, putting stuff on railroad tracks to get ran over,” said Compton.
“I don’t think it’s safe, somebody can get hurt, get killed, end up in the hospital, dead,” said her sister, Emily Winkelman.
“Why would you do that to put your life at risk or to seek attention, that’s what I’m assuming, some kids are downright crazy for doing that,” said resident Tyler Getty.
“It is not something that we want to happen because it just encourages copycat people trying to ‘one up’ somebody else and every time you roll the dice, the likelihood is that you might not survive it, and we don’t want that to happen,” said Friday.

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In other forums we call these types of kids potential Darwin award winners. I know it is kinda cruel to label them that way, But playing chicken with a train?
To me that is like playing Russian roulette. sooner or later you will lose.
Kenny

Besides injuring/killing the idiots on the tracks you have the dangers to the crew and bystanders if the engineer has to hit the emergency brake.

When doing this kind of thing, I like to say: "When you dodge the train, you don't win, you postpone the inevitable." This is so stupid it isn't even funny.

Not impressed ... Not even a very close call ... They still had @ 30' distance, playing chicken with that train.

You just can't fix stupid. Dummys!

#yolo #swag

H222 said:

#yolo #swag

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:hehe: #yoloswagforlife

Sadly, when the inevitable happens the train crew will be blamed for not stopping the train in time and will then live with this accident forever.

John

JCitron said:

Sadly, when the inevitable happens the train crew will be blamed for not stopping the train in time and will then live with this accident forever.

John

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Hi John and everybody.
I can only speak for the British road transport industry but by experience I know that if you are employed by one of the major companies in transport and are involved in a serious accident where people are killed or injured you always get excellent support to help you through the trauma.

In my many years as a heavy goods vehicle driver I was once involved in an accident where a 19-year-old car driver lost control of his speeding vehicle on a bend and collided head-on into the front of the 30 ton articulated vehicle I was driving. It was the early hours of the morning and he was trapped in his car for over half an hour, conscious and with only me in attendance while waiting for the emergency services to arrive.

He was released from the vehicle with serious spinal injuries and it was only then that we realized his father was also in the badly crushed car fatally injured. The 19-year-old (at that time) will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair and for me I just kept re-living the seconds up to that crash over and over again in the days that followed. I did not think that I would ever wish to get back into the cab of a vehicle again.

However, I got wonderful support from the company I was working for through the occupational health support personnel who had much experience in cases like mine. With their techniques and professional encouragement I was soon up and driving again. I still re-live the experience now and again in quieter moments but strangely enough my experience with the occupational health people got me interested in workplace/industrial health and safety and that is where I still make my living today. Again I can only speak for the British transport industry but I would think you would receive very similar support in America as I did here

As for the teenagers on the line, well as teenagers did not we all do stupid things just to impress our peers. It was all part of the path to becoming a full adult and anyone who says they did not do silly things at that age have certainly missed out on what can be a great period in your life.

Bill

wow some people are complete idiots......

man oh man,just when the incidents involve trains are bad/deadly enough,the people doing this for thrills is just plain dumb,I guess common sense is almost non existant in this case!

Think we can all agree on the stupidity and a lack of maturity as well. For some time now Russian Railways have had an issue with teenage boys and young men running along train roof topes including passenger ones. A number of years ago some boys around 13 and 14 tried to grab hold of a double deck bus as it solowed round a corner to a terminus and one fell of and the rear of the vehicle went over his head splitting it. The driver in such shock and when he went back to hs seat to radio in they had to prise his hand soff the steering wheel the state the man was left in.

It's all "natural selection" until it's your kid that dies....

Hi All
I've locked this one, as the comments are heading down hill.

Please remember to be safe around railways!

Regards