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News articles routinely mention trespassers getting hit by trains. Does nyone know if this is unique to the US or does it happen in other countries as well?
It's no surprise that rail lines are used as shortcuts; no big deal there (usually). But the US has a legal community that rushes to the defense of the stupid, the helpless, and the clueless...those who get themselves injured or killed by ignoring the dangers of walking along rail lines.
Ira Slotkin Member # 81
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I wondered too after reading your post. Did a google search for the term phrase "rail fatalities" and came up with a,ot of interesting links. This is one:
My experience in some other countries - Europe and Central America - is the actual tracks are far more accessible than here in the US. I have been to Great Britain too but don't recall about the tracks there.
Ira
MPALMER Member # 125
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I've been to England and Switzerland. Saw people/graffiti along the tracks in both countries.
I did see a lot more respect for crossing gates, though. I didn't see anyone gun it to get in front of the train at a crossing(but then they don't have mile-long freights either, if that's any excuse)
George Harris Member # 2077
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Thank you Mr. Slotkin!
It is interesting to see that people tend to get themselves killed around railroads everywhere railroads exist. However, there are some things in it that raise more questions than they answer. Some form of breakdown between trespassers, passengers, employees might reveal a lot. Particularly, I am surprised to see the number of fatalities that occur in orderly, law abiding Japan.
One thing that would be very interesting woulod be to develop some relationship between incident and opportunity. To state the obvious using the extreme case, without a railroad, there would be no railroad related fatalities, and an unmanned system in an unpopulated area would have no fatalities.
On the basis of opportunity, it would be very plain, I would suspect, that the accident rate in Japan, where track density, population density, and passenger ridership are all very high, is actually much lower than in the US where passenger ridership is low, and both population density and track density are much much lower.
Lee, Wonyoung Member # 2464
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Dear Mr.Harris, How is it going? In Korea also we have many fatalites and injuries in the railroad. Actually this unlaw-abiding person's death are on top of railroad death. Last year we had 198 deaths on our raliroad, most of them are rail trespassers. Crossing the trak is short cut most of cases. So they dare to pass the railtrak. Our death and injury rates are 2.4 persons per 1 million kilometers of operation.
Cthetrains Member # 2148
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my opinion..(though it may matter little to some)...if they're dumb enough to try it; why should we care?...if it was beyond their control; true tragedy, in the deepest sense.
jb17kx Member # 3978
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IN Australia (where the above data comes from) access to rail infastructure is highly regulated. Even out in the middle of nowhere the is a frence of sorts to out. I belive that the law here is bosed on the interpretation of "wilfull tresspassing". If you deleberatly walk onto the tracks and get run over, it's probably your fault. If you did anything deliberatly, it is almost always your fault. Education is a big focus too: http://www.cityrail.info/schoolgroups/youth.jsp This guy didn't get procecuted or file for damages.
The problem is, kids in places that don't have trains, or in areas that aren't cities, don't get educated for when they go on their touristy visits.
CityRail is a NSW Government Corporation that runs the urban rail service for the Sydney region
dogoth Member # 31639
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I'd call it Darwin at work. If you're brainless enough (or Mr Magoo enough) to not see/hear a 250 ton diesel electric coming at you.......You just gotta wonder.
I've done some study about railroad easments and (in the US) unless you're at a crossing, you're trespassing. As a rule I stay clear by a good 10 meters or so. If I cross a track, I do it quickly and cautiously (I wouldn't make a good hood ornament).
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