Parents need to teach their children very early on to NEVER play around railroad tracks, to RESPECT the moving train because it’s going to win 99.9% of the time. EDUCATION is the key to railway accidents. At least once a year, an Operation Lifesaver spokesperson should visit every gradeschool and put on a presentation. Show and tell what these iron horses can do. There’s a fine line between respect and fear. Either way, it will keep children off tracks.
Personal responsibility is a concept that is dying in this country. The railroad has no liability in this instance or any other where some dumbass is trespassing or walking on a track. My parents taught me about the dangers 50 years ago and I’m still scared to death of train tracks. But then, I’m still alive as well.
I wish my nephew’s parents taught him the dangers….he had a major mental illness, was just out a hospital after a year there and the father was violent and the mother just as ill as he was so not availble herself. He was riding the chicago trains and homeless and got kicked off just south of the city. I will never know the full story as he was struck at 11pm and family was told he was walking with back to train alongside it and may have had headphones on. No one responded to my many emails in the railroad arena of websites. And it took a year and a half to get his belongings he had on him out of the police stations.
I know he was depressed then and not on meds and freezing in the Feb. cold. But I never saw this one coming as an event in my family, my life and I hope parents will really think twice when they release a person against doctor’s advice even if the child is begging to go home for the new year as was his case. He was really an adult, 22…but far too young for hearts involved.
But I am glad the article is giving some coverage of the complexity of rail accidents involving pedestrians and the silence there has been except for the Operations Lifesaver programs….God Bless IT!
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Parents need to teach their children very early on to NEVER play around railroad tracks, to RESPECT the moving train because it’s going to win 99.9% of the time. EDUCATION is the key to railway accidents. At least once a year, an Operation Lifesaver spokesperson should visit every gradeschool and put on a presentation. Show and tell what these iron horses can do. There’s a fine line between respect and fear. Either way, it will keep children off tracks.
Personal responsibility is a concept that is dying in this country. The railroad has no liability in this instance or any other where some dumbass is trespassing or walking on a track. My parents taught me about the dangers 50 years ago and I’m still scared to death of train tracks. But then, I’m still alive as well.
I wish my nephew’s parents taught him the dangers….he had a major mental illness, was just out a hospital after a year there and the father was violent and the mother just as ill as he was so not availble herself. He was riding the chicago trains and homeless and got kicked off just south of the city. I will never know the full story as he was struck at 11pm and family was told he was walking with back to train alongside it and may have had headphones on. No one responded to my many emails in the railroad arena of websites. And it took a year and a half to get his belongings he had on him out of the police stations.
I know he was depressed then and not on meds and freezing in the Feb. cold. But I never saw this one coming as an event in my family, my life and I hope parents will really think twice when they release a person against doctor’s advice even if the child is begging to go home for the new year as was his case. He was really an adult, 22…but far too young for hearts involved.
But I am glad the article is giving some coverage of the complexity of rail accidents involving pedestrians and the silence there has been except for the Operations Lifesaver programs….God Bless IT!