Eastern Railroad Discussion > Woman found dead on train tracks

Very sad and a mystery.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/33460347/metrosafe-investigation-underway-after-body-found-on-railroad-tracks

This one is a mystery.  I'll sort of sum up what I've heard on various new reports.

The body was found by a track inspector.  Apparently the engineer and conductor diidn't know she had been hit.  I would guess that if she had been real close to the train as it approached, they would have looked out the side window to see that she was still standing as they passed her.  Had she been hit or even knocked down, they surely would have stopped.  So how did she end up like she did?  Did she run into the side of the train, or maybe jump under it and try to get out the other side?  Was she pushed?  The police are not suspecting foul play at this time.  There's nothing more that's being said at this time.  Even on a local Facebook railfan page, nothing is known.  

John

I once had a man, in his fifties, wave at me as the locomotives passed where he was standing. He then started walking in the other direction, we were headed west, he started walking east, between the rails on the other main, and I, and my Conductor, in the second unit, both watched as long as we could, but eventually we were no longer able to see him walking. The train following us, right on our block, found him dead, between the two mains. He tried to dive under the train, but they think an operating lever hit him and killed him and pushed him away from the train, and he ended up between the mains.

This fellow was forced to retire due to health issues, from the Chicago Area RTA. He felt he was no longer needed or wanted, and decided to end his life. He was my second of three in my 20 years on the road.

It is sad when anyone is hurt, or killed by a train, even if it is a suicide.

Ron

wa4umr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This one is a mystery.  I'll sort of sum up what
> I've heard on various new reports.

Happens more often than you would think. Even with the best visibility, there are still sizable blind spots from inside the cab. There are plenty of times where we know we hit something, but have no idea what it was, because it wasn't visible as we approached.

Posted from Android

We worked Bakersfield to Fresno, tied up and went to the motel.  About three hours later the police were at my door wanting to know why I didn't stop my train after it ran over a guy.
It took a while to convince the cops that me and the engineer were on the head end, and we didn't run over anybody!

"Well then, how did a run-over body get between the tracks so the next train sees it and gets half of its train over it if you didn't run over it?"  Neither me nor the engineer ran over anything, and the engineer should be back from the restaurant soon, so you can ask him too, he's in room 17!

The cops went up the line to check out our train which was mostly empties, and found about five bums riding in an empty boxcar.
Turns out they had a fight and the guy got thrown off of our moving train.
G