[PRCo] More Darwyn

[Fred Schneider]

I agree partially but I still feel that our friends on the other side of the
ocean do a better job training people how to drive safely, if only because
the trams are far more common, the trains are more common, and they have
four times as many drivers packed into the same square mile.  You have to be
good to survive.

But there will always be those who will be drivers splattered across the
landscape because of  inattention, or medical reasons.  And there will be
pedestrians killed.  Historically, people walking where they didn't belong
caused far more accidents (including fatalities) with trains or trolleys
than we those incurred by people on the rail cars.

I remember a friend who grew up in Wheaton, Illinois telling me about a five
or six year old friend of his who took a short cut across the Chicago,
Aurora and Elgin every day.  Never got hurt because he stepped over the two
third rails.  He was carefully coached that you don't step on the third
rail.  Ah, but one day he dragged his steel toy wagon behind him.

And the Erie - Lackawanna engineman who told me he knew of none of his
collegues who had not run over and killed someone.  He admitted to three
separate fatalities.  Running trains in suburban commuter districts can be
hell on the live stock ... kids are always taking a short cut from one home
to another.

And outside of Salzberg, Austria, on a four-track wide sweeping curve, a
memorial with fresh flowers beside the tracks.  Again, a child who refused
to take time to walk through the underpass not 50 feet away.

Jim is absolutely correct ... you will eliminate every accident.  You cannot
fence every inch of right-of-way.  You cannot expect your fences not to be
cut down.  And you can expect to be sued.  BUT WE CAN STILL DO A LOT IN THIS
COUNTRY TOWARD SAFER ROADS BY NOT ALLOWING UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE TO TEACH
OTHERS HOW TO DRIVE LIKE IDIOTS.   JOHN SWINDLER HAS POINTED OUT MANY TIMES
HIS BELIEF THAT WE WILLING TOLORATE A CERTAIN NUMBER OF DEATHS EACH YEAR
BECAUSE OF ALCOHOL, BUT WE GET UPSET IF A SMALLER NUMBER ARE KILLED IN A
WAR.   THE SAME APPLIES TO ALLOWING X NUMBER OF PEOPLE TO BE KILLED EACH
YEAR BECAUSE WE DON'T TEACH THEM CORRECTLY.  DEATHS ARE SIMPLY A COST OF
DOING BUSINESS.

REMOVE SOAP BOX.  fws

Jim Holland wrote:

>         ALL  the drivers, pedestrians, motorists, passengers, managers,
> labor, doctors, lawyers, Indian-Chiefs, leaders, followers, etc.
> Are Taken From The Same Mold  --  Human--Mold.
>
>         Hardly anything unique about driving habits in one area over
> another  --  or any other *habit.*
>
>         We have all probably seen the PBS documentary detailing people
> getting killed walking across a multiple track RR mainline.
> Doc. starts with people walking across the tracks, shows
> construction of a people walk-way across same tracks All The
> While with people walking across the tracks  --  shows the
> Completed Pedestrian Walkway across the tracks  AND  People Still
> Walk Across The Tracks and the doc emphasizes that it was the
> rare individual to use the completed walkway.
>
>         All this happened in Europe Where - presumably - people know All
> About Transit, Know How and Do Use Transit, and have higher
> standards than elsewhere.

fws