Their parents should be sterilized

[Cobrabill]

May 29, 2008MILTON, N.H. - Two teenage girls who fell asleep while sunbathing on a railroad trestle lost limbs when a freight train ran them over, the Boston Globe reported. Authorities don't suspect alcohol or drugs were involved.

Destiny Phaneuf, 13, and Rachel Brown, 14, both of Lebanon, Maine, were skipping class and enjoying the sunny weather. They were lying on beach towels on an active railroad line where it crosses Three Mill Pond on a trestle.

Shortly before 11 a.m., a train approached. The engineer blew the locomotive's horn, but the girls didn't move. Phaneuf lost one leg below her knee, while Brown lost a foot. Both were airlifted to a hospital in Portland. Brown told authorities the two had fallen asleep.

[Wes Tausend]

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Geez Bill,

I actually think the local wildlife are getting smarter as we thin out the dimwitted DNA ranks.

It's just hard to believe that some humans can be dumber than slow learners with fur.

I wonder if it would help to dim the headlights for humans, besides the blowing the horn?


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[Cobrabill]

I have a Macaw that is smarter than those two.

[Excaliber]

Try that in Hawaii and add 2nd degree sun burn, or worse, to the other injuries. Dangerous to fall asleep sun bathing around these parts...

[HI Cobra]

Yeah Ernie but we don't have no stinkin' trains either!
No drugs huh - the vibration and noise didn't wake 'em up?
Oh that's right, they were brain dead already. Go figure.

[Excaliber]

Yo Flip!
Hey we DO have a train and I've been on it. The "Sugar Train", run's out of Kapolei area and folks are steadily increasing\renewing the old tracks and have restored many of the cars and engines. Several miles of track have been restored. It's a little known local attraction that offers the public rides on the weekend! We used to take Dusty on it when he was a kid, I miss those times...

Hey, we should do a Aloha Cobra Club run out there ride the train sometime, it's pretty cool. There always looking for volunteers and I've been seriously considering doing some work with those guys. It's non profit volunteer kind of thing.

It mostly hauled pinapples, actually...

http://www.oahurailway.com/

[Ron61]

Bill,

About 4 months ago then had a man killed in Redding who was sleeping on the railroad tracks so this is not just an isolated incident. Also claimed no drugs or alcohol were involved. Some time before that another man was killed when he went around the road barriers and tried to beat the train. He was in a wheelchair.

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by HI Cobra

Yeah Ernie but we don't have no stinkin' trains either!
No drugs huh - the vibration and noise didn't wake 'em up?
Oh that's right, they were brain dead already. Go figure.

No Trains!!??

I'm moving to Hawaii when I retire. I live about 6 blocks from the 35 mph main line here in Bismarck. When I hit the rack trying to get 40 winks before my 12 hour driving stint, I hear every train whistle past about 5 or 6 crossings.

It never used to bother me for the 20 or so years I lived here before I hired out railroading. It still wouldn't be so bad but normally my phone rings with the call to work just as the train blows by.

So now I'm trained like Pavlov's dog. I wake up consistently every toot. I haven't started drooling yet ...but it can't be far away. And it also happens on my day off. Sheesh.

Waaahh. Waaahh.


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[Ron61]

Darn Wes,

That must be enough to drive you crazy. The railroad track goes just West of me about 1/2 mile and sometimes depending on the weather you can't even hear the trains go by. Other times it sounds as if they are coming through the house. Only time it really bothers me is when they start the switch engines and let them set for an hour to warm up on days that the sound really makes it here.

Ron

[Cobrabill]

35MPH main?!!!!I thought i had it bad near my house.

[Rick Parker]

Are train tracks really THAT comfortable? I have always wondered about the decision making process when it came to iron Train Tracks with rocks and wooden ties, vs a nearby grassy knoll. Hmmm? (Thinking to self) "Yea, I think I'll lay down on these tracks, and take me a little nap., yea, this looks like a REAL good place for a nap".

[Joe Wicked]

I was kinda thinking the same thing. I used to walk the old rail lines as a kid, but these were all out of service lines many from defunct companies dating to the 1800s. You could only find small sections, and the adventure was to decipher where the line used to run. Look for the obvious signs, and have an adventure. My cousin and I actually stumbled upon a ghost town. Most of the adults knew of its existence even if they didn't know where it was exactly. We found out that we had hiked along a total of 23 miles that day. Seemed really far to a couple of 13 year old kids. We never considered walking across an active line train bridge. Even when we couldn't hear any trains, I don't ever remember even feeling for vibrations to see if we could.

[Power Surge]

I had a customer who was a train operator. I was talking to him one day about reading something about a guy getting killed by a train. He told me that he ran a guy over about 7 years ago. All you can do is blow the horn, you can't stop the train in time. He said that it happens much more often than people think. I have no clue what would possess someone to do anything of that nature.

[Cobrabill]

Originally Posted by Power Surge

I had a customer who was a train operator. I was talking to him one day about reading something about a guy getting killed by a train. He told me that he ran a guy over about 7 years ago. All you can do is blow the horn, you can't stop the train in time. He said that it happens much more often than people think. I have no clue what would possess someone to do anything of that nature.

Most critical incidents you'll never hear about.
In Tucson,double mains run east thru downtown to the yard.Near the tracks are a few bars mostly frequented by college age folks.A couple of idiots decided they were going to"hop some trains".One would text the other and say-"i'm on this one here".The other would text back-"well, i'm on this one down here".
They didn't know about a thing called "slack action".On rail cars you have a drawbar & coupler on each end.Drawbars are spring loaded(to a degree) and contract and lengthen with train movement.They absorb SOME of the shock(among other things) to reduce the amount transfering to the car it self and contents.
Example:A auto train has cars that the drawbar will extend or retract 12 inches or so.So if the train is 100 cars long(2 drawbars per car),the back end of the train can move 200 feet with the head end stationary.

Well,one of the two genius' wasn't hanging on tight and when the slack ran out it popped him off and he fell between the cars.The train behind found the body with cell phone still in hand,text message on the screen...headless

[Joe Wicked]

Sounds like Darwin at work to me.

Edit: As a kid I knew better than to do stupid stuff like that. Then again, I was into trains and spent a little time learning about them as i thought they were really neat.

[trularin]

Ernie, were you a cane worker when you road on that rain?

[Ron61]

Originally Posted by trularin

Ernie, were you a cane worker when you road on that rain?

Tru,

What kind of rain did Ernie ride on?

Joe,

As for walking on live tracks across a tressel, we have one here that is almost a mile long and it seems that nearly every year there are one or two teens killed out on it. I have walked up to the end of it on both sides of the river, but never had any desire to start across it.

Ron

[wtm442]

I can remember taking a ride on the railroad tracks for about 6 miles in my friends 1964 GTO. Must have been in the early 70's. Some of the stuff I remember - its amazing that I'm still alive.

Last week, a mother (walking) and her 8 year old son (on his bike) were waiting for the train to pass in a town near me. When the train passed, the kid started to ride across the tracks ... but the gates had not opened yet. He was hit by another train coming in the opposite direction. Killed instantly. Do you think the mother will ever forget the horror?

Six months ago, a homeless man was hit and killed by a train. They think it was suicide.

[Ron61]

Warren,

That is sad about the kid and he probably wasn't even looking. But it is amazing at the number of people killed here and we don't have that many trains going through. One person drove through the crossing gate and broke it and was killed. His family sued the railroad and the case was thrown out when the railroad showed up with the video from the engine. Seems they have started video taping their runs now like the patrol cars do all of their stops and stuff. But it seems to be almost a monthly thing that someone gets hit by a train in this area.

Ron

[Cobrabill]

Most road power has video cameras on the dash that turn on when the horn is blown.

In Ct.,a grandmother DROVE AROUND the gates and got plowed by a on-coming train.Problem is,she had her FOUR grandchildren with her.The estate is sueing saying that the railroad shouldn't have put the crossing there.