# Woman pushed onto train tracks (RO) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166 "2008-08-07T14:30:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/61 "2008-08-08T14:42:50Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] Could someone please explain where the humor is in the OP? I don’t get it. [/QUOTE] I _could_ tell you, but then I’d have to push you on to a high voltage train rail. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/62 "2008-08-08T14:55:56Z")
[QUOTE=Staggerlee] My mistake - my OP was a serious defence of smokers’ rights being upheld by thuggery. And here I am, ass in hand, quivering in my threadbare tent at the mention of Stetson hats. Piss off, sailor-boy. [/QUOTE] What “smokers’ rights” were being violated? From your OP link (my bolding): > [@](#): > > British Transport Police officers were studying CCTV footage last night. They said the woman approached the two men on Monday morning and asked them to stop smoking, **which is banned on platforms**. Yesterday, as she walked past the same men, one of them pushed her off the platform. The attack came two minutes before the 7.12am train to London Victoria was due to arrive. Are you claiming that smokers have the right to smoke anywhere they choose, even in locations where it is banned? And that being asked to stop smoking in an area where it is illegal is “thuggery”? It seems to me that the only thugs in this incident were the two smokers, who chose to respond to a politely worded request with physical violence. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/63 "2008-08-08T14:59:45Z")
If a train passes a platform where people are illegally smoking, does it still go “whoosh”? ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/64 "2008-08-08T15:00:31Z")
What’s that wooshing noise I keep hearing? Never mind, it was just another anti-smoking crusader falling onto the tracks. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/65 "2008-08-08T15:08:23Z")
[QUOTE=Staggerlee] **Woman pushed onto train tracks** [/QUOTE] [twirls mustachios] Now will you marry me, my pretty?! BWAAAHAAHAAAH!! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/66 "2008-08-08T15:16:36Z")
Irony usually works better when it’s so outrageous that people are easily able to recognize it as such. The idea of a smoker supporting what those two did is plausible to me (I did suspect the OP of being ironic, but on the off chance it wasn’t, I posted as I did). ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/67 "2008-08-09T22:35:18Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] In a nutshell, two law-breakers almost killed a woman because she dared to tell them to stop doing something that was illegal. That’s a great way to run a society - make law-abiding people afraid to ask the law-breakers to stop breaking the law. Next time I ask someone with a full cart to look at the sign that says 10 items only at the express checkout at Wal\*Mart, I’ll be braced for them pulling a gun on me. [/QUOTE] Not far off what happened to poor [Kevin Tripp](L:\Media\TV\Dead Like Me\Season 1) in a supermarket queue. Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/68 "2008-08-09T23:20:27Z")
[QUOTE=pretend my name is witty] Not far off what happened to poor [Kevin Tripp](L:\Media\TV\Dead Like Me\Season 1) in a supermarket queue. Bastards. [/QUOTE] [Working alternate link](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4124582.ece) ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/69 "2008-08-10T10:19:03Z")
That was, in fact, the link I had tried to put up. Must’ve forgotten what was on my clipboard. Thank you, **Bryan Ekers**. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/70 "2008-08-12T09:53:28Z")
She really should have realised that rather then ask them to stop smoking she should have waited until they were off guard and then pushed them in front of a train. Its what I always do because I’m incredibly shy about talking to strangers. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/71 "2008-08-12T10:13:20Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] She really should have realised that rather then ask them to stop smoking she should have waited until they were off guard and then pushed them in front of a train. Its what I always do because I’m incredibly shy about talking to strangers. [/QUOTE] Maybe putting that on the boxes will persuade people to stop smoking? “Warning: Smoking may lead to you being pushed in front of a train.” ---
**Author:** ![mudkicker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mudkicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudkicker)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/72 "2008-08-12T10:58:17Z")
There has been an excellent blog by Victoria Coren from the Guardian on this, and a very interesting debate. Smoking in the open air on a station platform is not actually illegal, it’s a bye law enforced by the rail company. There is also some dispute about whether the woman was pushed or fell - one suggestion is that she tried to take a cigarette forcibly from one of the men and that there was a scuffle during which she fell. Victoria Coren’s piece roundly condemns the violence, but points out what she feels is an unnecessary level of busybodiness in the UK since the smoking ban, where someone who is not bothered at all by cigarette smoke (because the smoker is outside) nevertheless feels the need to lecture about it simply because they disapprove of smoking in general. I don’t have time to look up the link, sorry, but the blog and debate is on the Guardian’s Comment is Free page, under the title ‘No smoke without ire’. There has been quite a lot of debate in the UK recently about whether and how to intervene if someone is being ‘anti-social’, and this was one of the more interesting blogs I read on it. Good to while away a work hour or two! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/73 "2008-08-12T11:01:25Z")
It’s utter nonsense that smoking outside is not bothersome to others in the near vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/74 "2008-08-12T11:07:28Z")
If a non-smoker shorts out the third rail, what happens? ---
**Author:** ![mudkicker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mudkicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudkicker)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/75 "2008-08-12T11:13:53Z")
Yes, but the point Victoria Coren was making was that someone smoking thirty metres from you on an open air platform is not the same as someone smoking beside you and your child at a closed bus stop, for example. In this case, the smokers do not seem to have been near the woman to ‘bother’ her, they weren’t deliberately standing right beside her blowing smoke into her face, she walked past them and for the third time that week asked them to stop. I have no beef in this fight, and the men were obviously wrong not to just ignore her, but I can’t imagine that simply walking for two seconds past a smoker is going to be that bothersome to someone. And it certainly is true imho that some people seem to constantly on the lookout for people they can admonish. To use Featherlou’s example above, if someone cut into the ‘10 items or less’ queue at the supermarket in front of me with 20 items, I would probably (politely) say something. But I wouldn’t make a point of lurking around the queue looking for someone to tick off. There are these types of people about, and this woman does seem to have been one of them. Personally I’d save my vigilantism to help if someone was being attacked, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/76 "2008-08-12T12:55:02Z")
Bottom line, lady showed her ass to the wrong two thugs and got pushed for her trouble. Perhaps she will learn to walk away from the things that offend her so she can limit herself to the fights that she can actually win. I’d be interesting to know just how annoying this lady was to get them to this point. Perhaps I am wrong but I can’t see this escalating to this point if she had politely asked them to put out their offending smokes and walked away as they yelled “fuck you bitch” after her. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/77 "2008-08-12T12:55:22Z")
Duplicate post ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/78 "2008-08-12T14:18:13Z")
So, according to the last two posters, the proof the lady did anything other than politely asking them to extinguish their cigarettes is the simple fact they tried to kill her? Wow, you two missed your calling! You should teach Logic. Yes, that is sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/79 "2008-08-12T14:57:16Z")
This would have never happened in Canada. In Canada, they would have tied her to the tracks. In an interesting twist, someone with a name very similar to **Monty** would have come by to save her. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166/80 "2008-08-12T15:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] If a non-smoker shorts out the third rail, what happens? [/QUOTE] She starts smoking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-pushed-onto-train-tracks-ro/459166.md?page=5)