Just be thankful you don’t live in India. It looks like it happens all the time there.
I stumbled across a site once that shows hundreds of pictures of Indians who have chosen to lose their ID and then get run over by a train. Among other maladies.
Not only is it NSFW, it’s pretty darn gross. I will put instructions on how to find it in spoilers, for those who ignore my warnings and feel particularly twisted today. Seriously, it’s gross.
In Google Image, enter “khaki full sweater spectacles”
One would presume—at least, that’s what you can get from the obvious gaffe in the post I was replying to.
Good point! 
Going from memory, there was an urban legend about a suicidal dude who went up on a cliff above the ocean. He wanted to make sure, so he brought rope, a gun, gasoline and poison.
His idea was to tie the rope off to the cliff with a noose around his neck, douse himself with the gas, drink the poison, light the gas, and shoot himself in the head while jumping off the cliff.
So he did all that and when he jumped, the bullet missed his head, cutting the rope, and he fell into the water, which put the fire out, and he puked up the poison after gulping saltwater.
He wanted to live after that, but drowned before some fishermen could get to him.
Something like that.
The fishermen decided he was an asshat, and cut him up for fishbait.
Desperate people who want to end it all don’t think of the fact that they’ll be spoiling your commute. My sister-in-law shot herself in the mouth when her son was 7. I guess the trauma of that probably explains in part why he jumped in front of a subway car instead of using a gun.
They both suffered from bipolar disorder and were wont to stop taking their meds when they decided they were cured. I still feel guilty because I didn’t answer the phone when my nephew called that day.
I’ve got nothing to say MoodIndigo, apart from I hope your pain eases as time goes on. Unfortunately, the suffering for the suicidee stops immediately, but for those who are left behind, it goes on and on with unanswered questions and what ifs and all the other stuff.
In the case of my OP, there are also other victims too…and you may note that I was not particularly complaining about the delay in my commute, rather the effect on the driver especially (and on later thought, maybe other passengers who had their own personal issues that confronting the squishy death on the tracks might have exacerbated wot).
May everyone on this board go well tonight.
Oh, heck, I can’t resist playing Devil’s advocate for just one second here. Anyone spare a thought for the jumper? Sure, you got your commute delayed, and sure, the driver got traumatized, but the guy under the train killed himself. Of the three of you, when it’s all said and done, he’s probably the one having the lousiest day. If I wanted to be pissed at someone today, the suicidal bloke might not be my first choice. The rude woman at the public library this morning probably would be.
Just sayin’. You may carry on now.
All the time. See post #24
I may have reacted too emotionally to the topic, especially the title of the thread. kambuckta. I understand your frustration at the incident, and the trauma for all people involved. Thank you for your kind words.
In Australia the general practice is not to report suicides. Where someone makes the news you’ll often get a report of the discovery of a body and then the euphemism, “there are no suspicious circumstances”, which means it’s a suicide or, I suppose, natural death. The idea, sadly, is to discourage, copy cat acts.
Something like three or four people jump off the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne every week, but they are rarely reported unless there has been a major traffic disruption.
It’s not just the train driver and the passengers who suffer. I have friends who, as SES volunteers, have done a lot of body retrievals, including picking up the bits after train deaths, and it’s not done them a lot of good either.
I did contact the rail company to thank the driver for his professionalism and utter ‘cool’ during the stoppage and to wish him well, and recieved a phone call in response today from a company rep.
She thanked me for my thanks etc, and assured me that my letter would be put into the driver’s ‘file’, the driver would be told that a customer had passed on well-wishes, and that he would be nominated for commendation at some point down the track (no pun intended). She advised me that the entire contents of my letter would NOT be passed on, as they’ve found in the past that it has caused (unintentional) further upset for the drivers who just need time and space to get over such events.
That’s totally cool, and I’m happy.
Thanks for that info, blackhobyah. Over here, I can recall cases where folk have committed suicide by stepping out in front of the train, but generally the death is simply reported, not that it was suicide (the cases I know of involved people connected with those I know). Just seemed odd that the death wasn’t reported at all. Can see the reasoning, tho’.
Oh, I don’t know, I think it would be mandatory to record a “Goodbye, cruel world!” message.
kambuckta, that was deeply cool of you and the company. Thanks (I don’t know why I’m thanking you, being nearly half a world away and all, but there you go)
Meanwhile, divers will be dispatched to recover the body, and if you didn’t leave a note this would start with an investigation regarding your disappearance. Not to mention chunks of you floating to the shore after a while. Bad idea.
While it’s a very selfish way to go, I think that some people on a train being inconvenienced is far less worse than being so full of pain that you’d rather have your body crushed by a huge object than endure it any longer.
I can only imagine how terrifying it would be to see a train bearing down on you and knowing your body is going to be destroyed and you’re going to die. Nobody in their right mind would want that for themselves. So when somebody chooses that, can you even begin to imagine how they are feeling on the inside, for that to be an acceptable choice?
They could have been treated cruelly by others in life, and may have not had anyone in their life who loved them. I just find reactions like the OP’s really sad - total anger and hate for the person who died, no compassion at all.
I do not hate the person who topped himself. I do not know him, or his history, so I have no opinion one way or the other about his worth as a human being. And I’m not so callous as to have no compassion for his death…in fact, JFTR, when I was calling my partner on my cellphone to let him know that I would be late home, it was amidst tears and blubbering that something really awful had happened, and my heart ached for his death and for the pain he must have been feeling.
But on the same note, it is not unreasonable to be frigging angry at those who take their own lives for the mess they leave behind…both literally and figuratively speaking. Those who commit suicide do NOT have to clean up the shit…they don’t figure in the equation any more. But for those left behind, family, lovers, kids, friends, and even unsuspecting commuters and train drivers, it leaves THEM with a legacy that they have no opportunity to really resolve.
And THAT, IMHO sux dingo dongers. Sorry to offend your sensibilities Floozy.
Yes, it does - my sister successfully killed herself by car exhaust.
Granted, she used a garage and a car and not a garden hose and car, but the garage wasn’t airtight, either. You don’t need an airtight seal, you just have to raise the concentration of things like CO to lethal levels compared to outside. Rather like you can still fill a leaky bucket as long as the water is going in faster than it is leaking out.
People have managed to accidently gas themselves in moving vehicles due to exhaust gases leaking into the passenger cabin.