Railroaders' Nostalgia > Trespasser strike that wasn’t.

Like TAW’s post I have one a bit different. Eastbound B&O train, cleared speed restriction in DC, engineer dumped the air. Train stopped I walked from the rear, police were at the location of the body. Body was laying between the rails under the train. Only injury was a crease in the top of the head. Turns out the fellow was a homicide victim. Appeared that they tried to destroy the evidence. The engineer of our train had already been involved in multiple trespasser strikes and took a little comfort that he had not been involved in causing another death.
CR

Posted from iPhone

The same thing happened on the Southern Pacific Saugus Line a few miles west of Burbank Jct. out in California years ago.  It was kind of obvious that the victim was a homucide victim, since she was naked, and was obviously posed.  Since this is a family board, I won't go into detail on how she was posed.  Still, that crew was relieved on the spot.
I don't remember any of the crew ever being caled into court over this.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO.

What seems like a million years ago I was on a train operating from Oakland to Tracy (California). Just west of Pittsburgh we see a pile of "trash" laying on the tracks. We hit it, not thinking much of it, but for some reason the engineer was curious so he called the caboose and asked the conductor to look and see if he could see anything. A few minutes pass and the conductor calls back and reports he saw nothing. We continue to Tracy.

Back then it was not unusual to tie up at Tracy and then go right back on-duty to double back to Oakland, which we did that night. Leaving Pittsburgh we were on higher alert to see what we had hit simply out of curiosity. This time when we saw the pile of "trash" it was more spread out and we saw what looked like a body among it. We didn't stop but we did call the operator at Martinez to have him call the police to check it out. When we got to Oakland we found out it had been a body we had hit but it was obviously dead before we came along (case of "lead poisoning"); the perps were simply using the railroad to try and get rid of evidence or something.

As I always told the engine crew, you did NOT kill that person, the engine did. When investigating fatalities I always asked the coroner’s investigator to please run a full toxicology screen. Otherwise the screening would usually be just for alcohol and a few narcotics such as marijuana and cocaine. In certain California counties where I worked those additional tests would only be done for a fee. I paid (put on the old expense account) but it was worth it.

An old case in San Francisco was assigned to me too late for this to be done, but the remains should have been X-rayed for a bullet. Anyone rolled under a train who tangled with the wheels and rails does not remain intact. It’s worse than any haunted house scene that seems to be popular this month.  

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> An old case in San Francisco was assigned to me
> too late for this to be done, but the remains
> should have been X-rayed for a bullet.

I had one of those at Skykomish one night, working chief. The signal maintainer was also the town constable. He called to tell me that he was going to simplify my paperwork, he found the biullet entry and exit wounds.

TAW

westbound, I agree that a trespasser strike is more gruesome than any haunted house. And I always told trainees that you run tthe speed limit, blow road crossings, and make sure your headlight is on. That way you can face yourself in the mirror when you hit an automobile or a person. You had done everything in your power to prevent this from happening, and the other person is responsible for his actions and that day he made a bad choice.

Sam