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Headless body found by West Roxbury commuter-rail stop
By adamg on Sun, 07/19/2009 - 9:59am
Boston Police tweet officers are at the Highland stop this morning after a decapitated body was found on the train tracks.
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Apparent suicide
The Suffolk County DA's office says a West Roxbury woman, 59, appears to have committed suicide by lying on the tracks as a train approached.
A local resident discovered the woman's body around 5:30 - clad all in black, the DA's office says, adding:
A train hit her, and the driver didn't know that?
There are no scheduled Sunday passenger trains on this line. The last Saturday train printed in a public schedule is #1618, which is basically a non-stop deadhead move from Needham Heights at 11:32 pm to South Station at 11:57. Could this train have hit her without the driver even realizing it?
I am not a forensics specialist
And I don't even watch CSI and I am STILL glad to this day that because I'd covered a selectmen's meeting one night, I came in late the next morning and so didn't have to cover the couple sliced in half by a train in Framingham, but ...
If she's dressed all in black, why couldn't the operator miss her?
Noise?
I'd have thought that a train hitting a body on the track would make sufficiently loud and unexpected noise as to alarm the operator. I could be wrong.
Body?
Unless I misunderstand, it just hit the neck part. It'd be like running over a cat.
Headless body - bad idea
Last year I sat next to a conductor on a train stalled behind a suicide on the Fitchburg line. He said these suicides are terribly stressful for the crews, particularly the engineers. Suicide is a terrible idea to begin with. Don't spread the pain.
No news is Bad News
Was there anything on local radio/tv about this???
dead lady dressed in all black
so this woman left her house in all black sometime in the night, just in time for the last train from needham to south station. knowing it was an express train. the way she died and how it was calculated is just creepy... any info on who she was? was she by the park st bridge??
Channel 25 had something
Haven't checked the other stations, but if not, I bet it's because, well, it was a suicide and those don't tend to get covered unless it's in a public location or involves somebody in the public eye.
I initially posted something because of the BPD tweet that mentioned the homicide unit (which, yes, I realize is routine for all initially unexplained deaths).
BEWARE ALL TRAINS THIS SUMMER!
I know, this case is an apparent suicide (which is different), but it doesn't change the fact that another person died due to train accident last night just a few miles north:
Is it just me, or is the T getting even more dangerous and delayed than ever before this year?
- Not to be confused with "Anonymous"
Trains Cannot Stop
People trespassing on the tracks, people ignoring crossing gates, etc. is not the same as "trains being unsafe". The people trespassing and ignoring the crossing gates and markings are the ones being unsafe.
Anybody who grew up around trains knows this, and anybody who lives near trains should know this: stay off the tracks, if you really do want to live.
Trains are NOT like cars. They cannot stop quickly. The ability of a train to stop is directly related to the mass of the train and the speed of the train, but it isn't quick in any case.
Darwin Awards - Honorable Mention Category
Totally agree
I was posting more along the lines of "could some weird magical coincidence be causing accidents around rail-based mass transit lately", and not at all about "trains are physically unsafe".
Agreed about the risks anyone takes when walking near tracks - it's on their own head. It just seems like a really bad year for the MBTA - either in cases where the MBTA or it's employees may be at fault, or in cases where stupid pedestrians are at fault, or even in the... magical coincidences are at fault.
- Not to be confused with "Anonymous"
Another death on the same
Another death on the same line July 9, an accident, trespassing.
Another death on the same line
6/24/08, kid hit by train, accident.