Due to increases in congestion, distracted drivers, and just plain “jerk” drivers I haven’t held a steering wheel with my knee for decades. These days I would only do it for something very important like opening another beer! Just kidding.
^
Many years ago, a couple of co-workers and I were in the midst of a non-stop return trip from Daytona Beach to NJ. While one of us drove, the other two could sleep. Simple!
Well, on the last stretch of the trip, while I was dozing in the suicide seat, I was suddenly jarred awake by the Maverick bouncing and pitching. I shook myself awake, and asked the driver, “What just happened?”.
His response was…It’s okay…I woke up once we hit the gravel at the far edge of the shoulder.
You better believe that I kept my eyes open for the remainder of that trip.
Here’s a partial quote from that newspaper article about the jogger killed by the train, and it’s referring to the jogger.
“He just really had his stuff together.”
That is not an accurate statement, in my opinion. In my opinion, if somebody doesn’t use common sense, then they don’t really have their “stuff” together
“He just really had his stuff together” . In my opinion, if somebody doesn’t use common sense, then they don’t really have their “stuff” together."
He may very well have been a wonderful young man, albeit one with very poor judgment.
However, I have learned to ignore the laudatory postmortem statements made about virtually everyone who dies as a result of his poor judgment.
Whenever a young adult from an urban area is killed as a result of gun violence, you can be assured that at least one of his friends or relatives will say, “He was just starting to get his life back on track”. Yes, you hear those exact words in every case.
Whether it was poor judgment about engaging in urban gang culture or poor judgment about something as basic as knowing that you shouldn’t step into the path of an oncoming train, it is poor judgment nevertheless, and the laudatory statements of friends and relatives does not alter the reality that the deceased person died as a direct result of his own poor judgment.
(Please note that I referred to males, as women usually have better judgment than men.)
Woman are the stronger sex,believe or not,if not for our Mothers a lot of us would have had a worse time of it,but all that aside we sure need our Dads.
Motorized bikes again, coming home today one was toodleing up the street, hopped on the sidewalk and went through a just turned green light with no indication from the hoodie of looking either direction with 4 cars stacked up in the right turn lane and he was probably going 15 mph. Now instead people just looking for pedestrians before turning right on green watch for a motorized bicycle way behind you at before you turn. The brakes are not up to the speed, at a previous intersection the guy could not stop in time to avoid a car pulling forward at a 4 way stop. braked as hard as he could, including foot on the ground to help stop and turning right to avoid the car.
In case you missed a previous post check out my video http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/comment/3172294/#Comment_3172294
I freely admit that I’ve done some stupid things in the past and luckily only ended up with minor injuries.
Jogging in front of a train is out of my league though and what surprises me a bit is reading about the number of people (usually transients or some doper apparently) who go to sleep on railroad tracks and end up as hash.
I heard an interesting case on the radio, in regards to trains.
It was on NPR, so some of you other regulars can fill in the details and/or correct me. Because I know many of you guys listen to NPR, just like me
A documentary was being filmed, and the crew was literally set up on the train tracks. Somehow, it was assumed that there was no train coming. But nobody actually got permission in writing, to film their documentary
The end result is tragic, as the train did come, and killed some of the crew
I believe some of the victim’s relatives sued the producer, set director, or some such thing, because it was apparently their responsibility to provide a safe working environment, and they didn’t do that
When it comes to trains, it’s best to not make any assumptions, and not take any chances
When you mess around a train track,you are supposed to go through the proper channels and have a Railroad flagman or woman present,they communicate with the dispatchers and engineers on the trains,have helped haul fill across inservice railines before. A multi thousand ton train doesnt stop very well.
@db4690:
That was a really bizarre and sad accident. I remember it being on the news.
The “Midnight Rider” film director wanted to use the active railroad trestle bridge over a river to do some filming. They asked CSX permission several times and were denied. So they decided to do it anyways.
They had a bed and other props on the tracks. The train apparently hit some of the props, which were then propelled into some of the fleeing crew members - killing a 27 year old woman and injuring at least six.
Do a google search for “Midnight Rider crew train accident Georgia”. You’ll get lots of hits.
This wiki is a good place for info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Rider_(film)
@db4690, that’s a strange story about the documentary crew on the tracks. I had not heard of that one.
One would think that with a crew involved at least one person would have been on their toes and screamed for everyone to clear the tracks.
In another state near where some of my relatives live there was a car/train accident many years ago.
Four men and 2 women were out drinking on Saturday night in one of those old land yacht Buicks and they decided to park on the tracks about midnight so a couple of the men could get out and urinate. The car and lights were shut off.
They saw the train coming and the car would not restart. The obvious thing to do would be for everyone to get out and run like hell. Not this bunch.
The four men got out and tried to push the car off the tracks while the two women stayed inside.
They were still pushing when the train broadsided them and killed the entire lot.
Here is an example from Europe illustrating what happens when somebody fails to take normal precautions when operating a vehicle. In this case, nobody was injured, but the potential for serious injury was definitely there:
Imagine if the owner of the house had been taking a bath at the time . . .
In any case, that driver ought to give herself a dope slap, and maybe consider NEVER driving again
These are what I like to call “Cracker Jack” drivers. Instead of a toy whistle they got a coupon "Take this to your local DMV…"
OR,
Maybe Kellogg’s has a new promo going on… “5 box tops, $19.95 & recent photo…”
(used to be 3 box tops & only $1.98, … but had to adjust for inflation)
Driving should be considered the serious business,it is.Its not a right.