Passenger Trains > Trespasser hit & killed north of Chico by Amtrak #14(20

I was awoken when our Coast Starlight #14(20) stopped at Chico at 2:28am.

2:32am Highball from Chico

2:40am Emergency Brake Application!! Felt like we were doing 79mph as it took a long time to come to a stop. Turned on radio to find out a trespasser had been hit and killed. We came to rest a little north of 8th street and east of Kennedy (near mile post 186.something). We were delayed about an hour waiting for Chico Fire, Police, and Coroner to arrive, make their reports and release us. I heard the engineer say he wanted "relief"

3:35am Crew performs Air Brake test

3:52am Highball but shortly after we got rolling we came to a screeching stop again. Dispatcher said Chico authorities had more questions.

4:13am Slowly start to roll forward with multiple jerky stops

4:32am Highball

4:37am We stop side by side with the head-end of #11. Not sure if there was a crew exchange.

4:48am Highball now 3 hours late

Note: This appears to be the same area north of Chico as described in this post last year

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,144294
Date: 05/17/02 23:17
Amtrak vs. ped, Chico
Author: graybeard1942

According to TV news, the southbound Amtrak struck and killed a pedestrian near the west Eighth Aven crossing Friday morning about 4:30 a.m. There are no further details. This is the second Chico ped fatality in 2002.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/13 12:17 by kimura.

Isn't the engineer automatically taken out of service for a few days when something like this happens ?

FYI

Man Killed After Being Hit by Train
http://www.knvn.com/content/localnews/story/Man-Killed-After-Being-Hit-by-Train/n7ZQY19Xkk-PCFASJGv2PQ.cspx

Butte County Sheriff's Deputies are investigating a man who was hit and killed by a train in Chico early Friday morning. Sheriff's Deputies are saying it is most likely a suicide. It happened a little before three in the morning at the tracks near West East Avenue in North Chico. The conductor of the train told deputies that the man jumped out onto the tracks, leaving him little time to slow down.

The man's identity has not been released.

Video showing incident site
http://www.knvn.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=4108823

no

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Isn't the engineer automatically taken out of
> service for a few days when something like this
> happens ?

No. He is given a few days of trauma relief, sometimes provided counselling if needed. Some guys just take the couple days as freebies (get the trips they missed paid, too), and have a mini vacation.

On the LIRR, I believe it is 3 days, which can include a weekend. The rationale is the engineer would not be able to fully concentrate on his/her job.

PTSD can happen in small doses and sometimes the reaction to such an event is a delayed reaction to the event.Taking R and R after hitting a person especially if not in a truck or car wreck is good common sense to be sure one has their psychological "feet on the ground ". I have spoken to many engineers who had issues passing by the same spot on ensuing trips for several months, but still could focus on the job in the cab. You never forget, but you learn to handle it and highball on down life's line. On The SWC #3 once we hit a cow outside of ABQ about 30 minutes and on another trip the same engineer struck a German Shepard so crazy things can happen and true professionals learn to deal with the fact that shopping carts, bicycles or whatever can be on the tracks anytime like what happened to #14 crossing the San Fernando Valley just out of L.A. once in 1989. Our best thoughts are with that engineer as well as the family of the deceased.

Phil Blommendahl
Getzville, NY

Sad to say, but Chico is in many ways too numerous to discuss here, a really terrible place. Now this incident was apparently a suicide, but alcohol and drug related crime and "accidental" deaths are all too common. Related violence is increasing dramatically, budget cuts may shrink the police department and the University seems unable to control or reduce the drunken party school image. Waiting for #14 at about bar closing time can at times be a disgusting experience. I have seen hundreds of drunk and drugged "students" on their way home walking over the tracks at the station, usually on the sidewalk, but oblivious to all potential danger.

Chico is no different than any other city. In all my time residing there I would not deem it a terrible place, that's a gross overstatement.

Chico, like many other small cities is now facing that same problem as other cities in the area and that is growth that it wasn't prepared for. Throughout the year there's the ebb and flow from CSU, but more recently there's been an upswing in tech companies that are basing themselves in town as well as many others. Budgets are(were) shrinking and the city at the same time was expanding and having to handle more calls for all of the city services and you can only do that before you max out on what you can do. The police department is actually hiring more officers for the first time in a few years so to paint it all as a picture of doom and gloom is not true. Like any city it has it's places to avoid (Chapmantown) and locals and most people who move there quickly learn that.

korotaj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sad to say, but Chico is in many ways too numerous
> to discuss here, a really terrible place. Now
> this incident was apparently a suicide, but
> alcohol and drug related crime and "accidental"
> deaths are all too common. Related violence is
> increasing dramatically, budget cuts may shrink
> the police department and the University seems
> unable to control or reduce the drunken party
> school image. Waiting for #14 at about bar
> closing time can at times be a disgusting
> experience. I have seen hundreds of drunk and
> drugged "students" on their way home walking over
> the tracks at the station, usually on the
> sidewalk, but oblivious to all potential danger.

It sounds like you have been away for a while.

> Isn't the engineer automatically taken out of service for a few days when something like this happens ?

As others have said, "no". "Taken out of service" is something the Company does when you would really rather they didn't. However, when he "asks for relief", he's more or less taking himself out of service.

>According to TV news, the southbound Amtrak struck and killed a pedestrian near the west Eighth Aven crossing Friday morning about 4:30 a.m. There are no further details. This is the second Chico ped fatality in 2002.

"8th St" and "W 8th St" are two separate crossings, about 2 miles apart. Quoting this article, which has a date of 2002, is confusing, to say the least. Most of the close calls for 11/14 have happened between W 2nd St and W 8th St, which are East of the depot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/13 23:07 by EtoinShrdlu.

Numbered avenues are on geographic north side and numbered streets are on south side, which does commonly cause confusion ay times.

He musta got Sac. Canyon confused with Donner, and thought Starlight was on FRC detour?

Steve Donaldson
Pacific Grove, CA

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> >According to TV news, the southbound Amtrak
> struck and killed a pedestrian near the west
> Eighth Aven crossing Friday morning about 4:30
> a.m. There are no further details. This is the
> second Chico ped fatality in 2002.
>
> "8th St" and "W 8th St" are two separate
> crossings, about 2 miles apart. Quoting this
> article, which has a date of 2002, is confusing,
> to say the least. Most of the close calls for
> 11/14 have happened between W 2nd St and W 8th St,
> which are East of the depot.

Oops. My bad! I was using my smartphone to access Trainorders and with that small screen I thought thread I quoted was 2012 but now I see it was way back in 2002!

Reviewing my voice notes of that night I think the engineer may have said the accident occurred north of West "Eighth" Ave (would that be near mile post 186.x?) and came to rest north of West "East" Ave near Kennedy Ave. I couldn't clearly hear the conversation as I forgot the antenna for my radio.