B line shut when train hits BC student wearing headphones
By adamg - Mon, 11/17/2008 - 11:39am.
The Herald reports the driver blew his horn, but the kid didn't hear him as he cut across the tracks near the BC stop this morning.
- Add new comment |
| 
| 
Classic!
I can't begin to count off how many times I have had a student just step off the curb, without looking, and respond to neither bike bell or car horn because of the cranked up tunes.
This goes back to the 80s, mind you. Classic issue with a dangerous mix of perceived immortality, blatant foolishness, and urban traffic nightmare that is Boston.
Probably goes back even earlier
Radio earphones, in one form or another, go back to the early 1960s.
Radio earphones
Transistor radio earphones in the 60s had one big difference - they only went in one ear.
Accidents happen. It would
Accidents happen. It would be better for everyone if we were all bright-eyed and bushy tailed at all times with no distractions and only a zen-like focus on the moment we inhabit guiding our every move. But it ain't like that, and so I get pissed off that every time there is an accident we have to mention in a very old-nannyish way that so-and-so wasn't wearing their seat belt, or smoked, or drank a little too much or had their earphones on or was not paying enough attention when the cancer/car/heart attack/piano hit them. The thing about life is that it is in the end fatal for everyone and rubbing in that someone wasn't being perfect enough at the moment of impact is "not very helpful" as they say.
Whit
Avoidable accidents
On the other hand, if you're making an overtly risky move, that zen-like focus is indeed a good idea. Someone who goes around (or over) a Jersey barrier into a no-pedestrians area to cross the streetcar tracks really ought to be paying full attention to his surroundings.
Don't most people
Don't most people instinctively at least give a glance in both directions before crossing any type of track? Headphones or not? I understand cars getting hit by the train... the thought that your civic can beat a trolley across the tracks is a bit more realistic.
More specifically
Given that the Herald suggested this person was "trespassing," (although it doesn't say how or where) doesn't it follow that he made the conscious effort to walk along the tracks or climb over a barrier?
If this is the case, the fact that he was wearing headphones and neglected to look both ways is essentially moot (although I suppose it certainly didn't help him in his predicament).
If he were at the zoo with his headphones on, picked the lock on the lion cage, climbed inside, and proceeded to get mauled, would we blame the incident on his not being able to hear the lions' roars, or his failure to look around at the agitated animals around him? It seems more logical to consider an even more obvious lapse of common sense to me.
I had not realized he had
I had not realized he had climbed over a barrier to cross the track. In that case perhaps he ought to have removed his earphones. One should be as alert as possible when consciously violating traffic laws.
Whit
There aren't really any barriers.
Well up by BC there aren't any barriers blocking the roadway from the tracks. There's a fence in between the tracks to discourage people from attempting to cross the tracks. There are a few spots where there are holes in the fence for crossovers.
Ignore this post.. it appears the barriers are new because they aren't in street view.
Is that an area where the
Is that an area where the tracks bend? Not to defend the kid but its possible that the train was coming around a corner so he didnt see it when he first started to cross?
Although to play my own Devils Advocate a turning train makes some pretty loud screaching noises, and it slows down to do so... Maybe he was just being stupid and not looking both ways before crossing (I wouldnt want to be him after he recovers enough for mom to tell him how stupid he was.)
Jersey barriers
Channel 5 reports he walked around some Jersey barriers to get on the tracks.
Are all of your lives so
Are all of your lives so boring that you need to come and talk about another families pain? Hope you sleep well tonight cause his family won't be!
too bad the news
Said yesterday that the T ran down a pedestrian. How much badder can you make the driver feel.
Well he was a pedestrian.
Well he was a pedestrian. Unless he was in some sort of vehicle then he is a pedestrian, even if he is going around a barrier. It doesnt mean the driver is wrong, it just is what it is. He should have been called a trespassing pedestrian, but he is a pedestrian.