This was a tragedy no matter how you look at it, but there are a few lessons to be learned here.
Train tracks, are where TRAINS run. Trains crush people, and they can’t stop soon enough to avoid careless mistakes.
The guy was “listening to music” from what the local news has reported. Headphones, earbuds, no matter, can all end up with a dead person given the right circumstances.
I can’t begin to imagine the negative feedback I would get if I said “Listen to music, but try not to get killed”. Ban Ipods? Smart phones too?
The sad reality, is that he should never have been on the tracks, and should have been aware of his surroundings.
I cross Broadway in Manhattan on a daily basis with headphones in. I fail to see why we would want to ban iPods or anything. This is a person who didn’t look up at the train, simple as that. Or wanted to die maybe. Who knows, but why should that make us feel like ear buds are something undesirable?
You are a stupid fuck. The kid couldn’t hear the train (real train, not NY version of a train) because he was listening to music. Looking up would not have helped because he was hit from behind. He wanted to die maybe? Say that to his parents, I’m sure they share the same sentiments as you.
Someday you will be listening to Nickelback, and you won’t hear the warning called out by a few bystanders, and will be flattened by a fucking runaway bus. tears
Cars are required to have functional horns. Why? Audible signaling.
Fuck it. Just keep doing what you’re doing, things usually even themselves out over time. There will be fire when you get killed.
I often tell people that there’s no way to get hit by a train that does not make you an idiot - barring a guy with a handlebar mustache tying you to the tracks.
Their immediate reaction is to say “that’s not true, what if… uh… like… well…”
They’re all Darwin award candidates. Got hit from behind while walking down train tracks with music blasting so high on your ipod that you can’t hear a train? FUCK YEAH! Glad your sperm will not be meeting an egg.
I mean, come on. This is nothing like getting hit by a car, although that’s generally the result of stupidity too. Trains only travel on one place - in train tracks, in exactly predictable patterns. They are also gigantic and easy to see. They also make a ton of noise. If you can’t fucking avoid the most obvious danger in the world - GOOD! The world is a better place by a tiny fraction.
No, why would you? That’s such an esoteric and obscure danger, why would you ever look around while crossing train tracks? You definitely wouldn’t want to be able hear a train coming either. I recommend putting on a blindfold and sound isolating earmuffs and then using a blind man’s cane to make sure you stay on the track and just walk until you feel like you’ve reached your destination. Certainly nothing bad could happen in this scenario.
I know of someone who was hit by a train at a crossing where visibility was impaired and the warning lights/gates malfunctioned. Gee - the safety device failed, I guess that makes him an idiot. :rolleyes:
Oh, wait - he wasn’t actually killed, I guess that makes it OK.
While I question the wisdom of actually walking lengthwise on tracks, at some point you’ll be on a road that crosses train tracks. Sooner or later the freak occurrence will occur and someone will have an accident.
Have you ever used earbuds? They just kind of sit there on the lower edge of the ear cup and don’t go into or cover the ear canal, therefore they don’t block external sound much at all. Even if I turn the sound up all the way on my iPod touch, I can still hear road noise, traffic, etc. Where I live it’s not even illegal to wear them while driving (this from a local police officer whom I asked about it).
I don’t know why the kid got hit, but I’m certain it wasn’t because he was wearing earbuds.
Sure, he might well have wanted to die. I’ve read and seen a number of reports from train engineers who have seen people who’ve ended up to have been wearing headphones of one kind of another walking on tracks. Sometimes they even look back at the train before continuing on their same path. It’s a terrible way to kill yourself considering how many train engineers end up with nightmares the rest of their lives, but people still do it.
I don’t know about where you live, but considering how loud our (real - commuter or freight) trains’ horns are, I’m surprised any headphones could drown out that sound. Scares the crap out of me when I’m listening to my iPod and a train passing through the station does its usual required horn, no matter what I’m listening to or how loud, and I’m a metal fan.
I had crossed the tracks one night after getting off the train, and went into a shop about a block from the crossing. Still had my earbuds in. The shopkeeper looked surprised and went on a desperate plea about how you shouldn’t wear headphones near the train ever. First of all, he assumed I was a train commuter (which was correct), and then he’d made the assumption that I had them in next to the train. This was also true, I admit. Finally he made the assumption that they impaired my hearing around the train, which is utterly false to the point that I turn off my music while waiting for the train to pass, as its engine sound at idle alone is too damned loud to hear anything over, much less when they blow the horn going through stations. Even across the road that parallels the tracks, I still can’t hear it over the sound of a passing train that doesn’t even blow the horn. If I ever get hearing damage, it’ll be from years of waiting next to a running train engine before it pulls out of the station.
Trains are huge metal things that stay on predetermined and easy to see paths, and they have very loud horns that are blown when someone is seen around the tracks, when they pass other trains, etc. If a pedestrian wearing earbuds is on train tracks and gets hit by a train, earbuds should typically drop way down the list of reasons to be at fault.
A couple of years ago in Brisbane a few kids from one of the lower income suburbs were killed while playing on the train tracks. They had previously been warned and removed by the police. (Same day). They returned and got run over. Now the parents are blaming the police. Hell if I know what they were supposed to do.