Re: Death by Train (was:- Someone killed in Melbourne Loop this morning?)

[Mr Simpson <mdoyle@mail.usyd.edu.au>]

John Regan wrote:

> Things are bad enough with all the dickheads who seem to see the front of a
> train as a way to liberate themselves from a crap life.  Giving people the
> idea of leaping infront of a train by publicising it does not go down well
> as these people think they will get a moment of notoriety and a mention in
> the local rag.
>
> I have had to witness the final seconds of a persons life and be powerless
> to do anything about it (even infact react) before he hit the locomotive
> headstock.
> It is something that I will NEVER ever forget.
>
> I was the first person to find the person next to the track and I watched
> him die moments before the Ambulance arrived.  It was not a glorious death.
>
> I had to endure the report writing and interveiws from the police that
> attended.
> The worst part was the nightmares and stuffed up personal life that is apart
> of the result.
> One thing I hate is at a party or such like and you meet new people.  When
> they find out you are a train driver one of the first questions seems to be
> "have you killed anyone". I usually tell them no for the simple fact that if
> I say yes  and choose to tell them then I am reliving it and it ruins the
> night for me.
> It is something that I can do without.
>
> You won't get any sympathy out of me for people that want to top themselves
> in this manner but I will stand 100% behind any crews that it occurs to.
> They have my thoughts and sympathy - I know what it is like.
>
> John Regan
> Locomotive Engineer
> New Zealand

  I would like to extend a similar note,
I have to admit, not being a train driver I can't claim to such an experience,
but I can
say that I have been very close proximity to a near miss (or near hit howvere
you
want to put it) and that was extremely stressful (possibly not the right word to
describe it?)
So from that I can deduce that what you would have to go through for something
worse than
just a near miss would be a significantly daunting time.
 On the original topic, I think it is just generally of bad taste to announce
something like that,
as I'm sure it's not something most people really need to hear. It seems only
the rail oriented
types like many of the members of this group want to hear, because we simply
want to know what is happening with our trains.

Homer