This happened in my area of the country. The article is from a local newspaper which also has an online site. Read the article as a couple people in a Trains.com forum doubted the video. Videographer catches near miss on Amherst railroad tracks | GazetteNET You tube video with comments by the railfan who did the video. He is known in the area of Amherst, MA which is a popular railfan spot. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyIW0r3-ruA"]YouTube - PG13!: Duo Of Teenagers Force Amtrak 55 Into Emergincy, At Amherst, MA[/ame] lexon
That train crew is the victim here. I feel sorry for them. :tb-sad: Those stupid kiddies will get no sympathy from me. :thumbs_down: Boxcab E50
whoa :tb-ooh: That musta scared the @^@$^ outta the train crew. i really wish the kid and/or her parents gets a BIG fine off this.
At that point, the crew can't even tell if they hit a kid or not!! Scary not only for the crew in the engine, but also the conductor, and anyone else standing on the train that had to brace themselves from the train going into emergency!!
My opinion is that the photographer has a responsibility to take his video file to the local police authority, report the incident, give them a copy of the video file, and suggest they contact the Amtrak authorities and the New England Central authorities. That video is a continuous sequence of the two girls from their commiting the crime until they are in full face view with easy identification, along with the adult who may or not be responsible for their actions. To do otherwise would mean that he is abetting the crime after the fact. This country's crime problem has gotten out of hand because too many people who witness crimes do not want to be involved with the police helping to solve the crime. They feel that the police should be able to solve every crime on their own without any outside help from us, the silent majority public.
Hank, check out the story in the link. It says the video was given to the local police. Hopefully some type of discipline will come of it. Mike
As stated I also have no sympathy for the girls. baffled: One could have been killed and the train crew would have been subjected to all types of undeserved abuse.:ru-shocked: The girls can be identified and they should not only be fined but subjected to jail time.:we2-policeman: See ya Ron
I believe we should simply let these little darlings go right ahead and EARN their Darwin Awards as they so rightfully deserve to earn them. My response may be a bit cold, or cynical, or be even seen as downright mean; however, I do beleive this will have the greatest impact upon all of the idiots involved in these stupid incidents. And even if nobody learns anything from these accidents, at least the ignorant little welps won't be able to reproduce and further extend their lineage of stupid people. I remember a vivid post from years back on this very board, perhaps posted by Watash himself, about how as a youngun he and his friends used to play chicken with the train; they'd wait for as long as thy could before jumping out of the way, much to the raging chagrin of the engineers yelling at them as the train passed. Well, one day one of the little kids Didn't make it; he slipped and fell across the rail, and the person who posted this story told how he got to witness half of a kid yelling and screaming as the body rolled down the grade. Guess how often they played chicken with the trains after that little incident!!! Sometimes an individual has to pay the ultimate price for the herd to finally get just how dangerous and stupid their idiotic behavior is. In this day and age we run from our problems as much as possible, sheltering those around us from the horrors we ourselves have seen. Unfortunately for the human being, first hand experience is very difficult to pass on because the individual recieving the knowledge has to comprehend just what they are being told. Sometimes it takes a little emotional scarring to finally make the person Smart! You see that woman walking around so casually? I bet that is mom or grandma, who has obviously either neglected to fill these girls in on the danger of the situation, or is one more of these idiot adults who thinks kids should be kids for as long as possible, because they're only kids once...and everythingthey do is cute or funny or to be encouraged. I'll tell you straight, the reason why many adults became adults is because being a kid flat out sucked, and becoming an adult was the greatest moment in our responsible lives!! Today there is no push to become an adult - stay young and ridiculous as long as you want because you only get one life!! [hawhat???!! - look, you live stupid, you die YOUNG, then you get even LESS life!!!] My sympathies to the crews - but please don't get too torn up when you hit an idiot - You're doing the rest of us a GREAT service! There's nothing you can do short of blowing your horns, because your future is guided by firm steel rails - they're the idiots, not you! I'd even suggest putting marks on the front of diesel noses for every idiot you hit, kind of like how fighter pilots used to tag victories on their planes. And some of hte Young engineers out there need to get in these events to understand their own responsibility, like that even with the engineer texting - how many other young engineers now have that incident riveted in their mind when they are on the road driving a train nowadays??! The sad part is, these people probably have NO clue they did anything bad or wrong or even dangerous...like I said before, no loss...
I think they should be made to sit and watch an hour long tape of things getting hit by railroad trains, including real footage taken from bystander and onboard video cams. And no censoring out the horrible parts!! Let them feel the full brunt of what COULD have happened, even if it is just a videotape!
Or better still go out on "piece patrol" where you have to find missing pieces and cover up with sheets the ground-up remains of what was once a human being. I have had to locate the remains of one suicide underneath my train. I dont care to do it again! Charlie
I guess you work for the railroad, does this mean that if you hit something / someone (I hope it never happens to you again) that you have to look for the remains? Is this a requirement of the railroad?
Charlie, I know what you mean. Some of the stuff we have to see is downright NASTY! I just had an incident the other day where a passing train reported kids on the track at a certain milepost. I went around the curve at restricted speed and they were STILL THERE! I stopped the train, toned the dispatcher, and soon the kids were in the back of a squad car LOL!!! I hope they learned their lesson. Our special agent isn't very friendly when he has to make house calls.
Well, somebody's gotta do it! Kinda hard to tell the responding police where to start looking for the remains if your not even certain where or how much is left. I can assure you, something like that is not the high point of their day either! Besides I've gotta know if there is any damage(ie broken lights or hoses or dented pilots) to the company inventory. Chances are a railroad official will be sent to the scene ASAP to "take stock" of the situation. We have to know what to tell him(her), the particulars and anything that may have caused,aided or abetted the incident. It is actually a "debriefing". We will then be relieved or told where and when to take the train(if feasible). We will also have made statements to the responding authorities and will have appraised the official(s) of the substance of our statement(s)to the police. It is not a "walk in the woods", believe me! Charlie
Score one for you,Steve! It's good to hear that a crew was able to exonerate themselves in a difficult situation! Those had to have been kids from the "slow learners group", that they were stupid enough to hang around. I used to chase the little pischers riding their skateboards along the platforms and concourses of the commuter stations. Signs posted EVERYWHERE... "No Loitering,No Rollerblading,No Skateboarding allowed on commuter platforms" They are a hazard in two major ways. They are a bumping hazard to boarding/detraining passengers. I have seen them run into several passengers! They are also a hazard to going off the edge of the platform into the path of a train. When they would see the police, they would scatter! When they saw me coming after them, they would scatter! ROFL I'm gonna post a story over on the "Storytime with Charlie" thread. CRS if I have posted it before.
Just curious- What were those fool kids doing? Were they young enough that an adult should have been supervising? Just punks sitting on the rails, tempting fate? Or? Boxcab E50
