Off topic but deadly important

I normally don't do things like this..... so please bear with me a
moment.

Today, March 17, 2004, the Chicago area has suffered the third loss of
a child's life in less than 30 days because of lack of knowledge of
train safety. In all three cases, the children struck by commuter
trains were cutting across tracks - not at intersections - to "take a
shortcut".

I beg each and every one of you to teach your children, grandchildren,
nieces and nephews, as much as you possibly can about how to be safe
around trains. And please please please follow these same guidelines
yourselves.

And it's not just commuter trains, nor is it limited to travel away
from a designated crussing.... one of my high school classmates was
killed AT the train station when he decided to duck around a stopped
commuter - and was hit by a passing Amtrak.

http://www.operationlifesaver.com is a great place to start if you
need guidance.

/P.S.A. off
Thanks!


Jenn L.
--
http://community.webshots.com/user/jaliace
http://sewu9corn.blogspot.com
Current projects:
Lady Scarlet's Journey (Just Nan)
Just Nan Round Robin - currently Silver Needle
Lady of the Flag (Mirabilia)

In article , Jenn Liace
writes:

killed AT the train station when he decided to duck around a stopped
commuter - and was hit by a passing Amtrak.

We've had several instances where someone too impatient to wait for the train
to pull out decided to hop across the connection between two cars, and fell
when the train started to move.

The utter ridiculousness of this is that any of us who ride the train regularly
know that the schedule calls for it to be at the station for a mere 25 seconds.
These folks are too impatient to wait half a minute?!


--
Finished 3/17/04 -- Elmo
WIP: Fireman's Prayer, Amid Amish Life, Angel of Autumn, Calif Sampler, Holiday
Snowglobe

Paralegal - Writer - Editor - Researcher
http://hometown.aol.com/kmc528/KMC.html

Jenn -

Thanks for that important reminder. I remember in the town where I grew
up, two terrible train accidents in my youth. One was when two sisters
were hit by a train. They were crossing the tracks, and one's foot got
stuck somehow. Her sister stayed with her, trying to pull her loose, and
both girls died.

Another time a 7th grade boy lost his leg when climbing between cars on
a stopped freight train.

Education is the only way to stop these terrible accidents. My heart
goes out to the families in your area who have lost children this way.

Sue





Jenn Liace wrote:
I normally don't do things like this..... so please bear with me a
moment.

Today, March 17, 2004, the Chicago area has suffered the third loss of
a child's life in less than 30 days because of lack of knowledge of
train safety. In all three cases, the children struck by commuter
trains were cutting across tracks - not at intersections - to "take a
shortcut".

I beg each and every one of you to teach your children, grandchildren,
nieces and nephews, as much as you possibly can about how to be safe
around trains. And please please please follow these same guidelines
yourselves.

And it's not just commuter trains, nor is it limited to travel away
from a designated crussing.... one of my high school classmates was
killed AT the train station when he decided to duck around a stopped
commuter - and was hit by a passing Amtrak.

http://www.operationlifesaver.com is a great place to start if you
need guidance.

/P.S.A. off
Thanks!


Jenn L.
--
http://community.webshots.com/user/jaliace
http://sewu9corn.blogspot.com
Current projects:
Lady Scarlet's Journey (Just Nan)
Just Nan Round Robin - currently Silver Needle
Lady of the Flag (Mirabilia)

In my hometown long freight trains would frequently be stopped for at
least twenty minutes while they were messing around at the steel mill on
the west side of town. A long freight blocked all four of the crossings
in town and all were at grade. If you were in a car, you could take a
nasty gravel road out west of town to the highway which had an overpass
or you could try a shorter gravel to the east in hopes that the train
wasn't long enough to block that crossing--a mile drive either way.
This didn't help kids who walked or rode a bike to school. For a long
time, the school wasn't at all sympathetic since the only ones who had
to cross the tracks were poor and lived in "the wrong side of town" and
they were all assumed to be slackers. Then the railroad complained
because kids were going between cars and even crawling under them to get
to school on time. Of course kids coming home from school didn't have a
problem. Parents were far more understanding than school administrators
and thought it was quite acceptable to go to a friend's house and wait
it out. Eventually they worked things out with the steel mill and the
railroad so trains would not be stopped in town at the time children
would normally be walking to school. South-end parents were encouraged
to drive their children if they needed to come to school at an odd time
(for a practice or after a doctor appointment).

I know it is much harder to make such accommodations to train schedules
when passenger lines are involved, but areas with a higher population
are also more likely to have an elevated or underground sidewalk or at
least could secure the funding for it if enough people speak up. I grew
up less than a block on the wrong side of the tracks, so I knew what to
do. How many kids don't have a clue?

Jenn Liace wrote:
I normally don't do things like this..... so please bear with me a
moment.

Today, March 17, 2004, the Chicago area has suffered the third loss of
a child's life in less than 30 days because of lack of knowledge of
train safety. In all three cases, the children struck by commuter
trains were cutting across tracks - not at intersections - to "take a
shortcut".

I beg each and every one of you to teach your children, grandchildren,
nieces and nephews, as much as you possibly can about how to be safe
around trains. And please please please follow these same guidelines
yourselves.
And it's not just commuter trains, nor is it limited to travel away
from a designated crussing.... one of my high school classmates was
killed AT the train station when he decided to duck around a stopped
commuter - and was hit by a passing Amtrak.

http://www.operationlifesaver.com is a great place to start if you
need guidance.

--
Brenda
"Sometimes I'd sit and gaze for days through sleepless dreams all alone
and trapped in time." Tommy Shaw

Jenn Liace wrote:
snip

I beg each and every one of you to teach your children, grandchildren,
nieces and nephews, as much as you possibly can about how to be safe
around trains. And please please please follow these same guidelines
yourselves.
snip again

As an addendum, also teach your about-to-drive teenagers about RR
crossings when driving. On my walks near the tracks, I have seen at
least 2 missed-by-an-inch cases where cars in the neighborhood tried to
beat the train and went around the barricades. They were missed by mere
inches. Is the extra 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes or whatever REALLY worth your
life, or that of your passengers?

There was a report a couple of years ago on Primetime or one of those
news shows about train crossings. A father had lost his 2 children when
his teenage son (sister in the car with him) decided to go around the
crossing arms. The father was lobbying for 4-arm crossing barriers.
Sounds cold, and I feel for his loss, but if his kid was stupid enough
to go around two barriers with an oncoming train, that's called natural
selection. PLEASE drill into your kids (and teach by example) the
necessity of waiting for the train. As my driver's ed teacher put it,
upon seeing a "yield" sign at a rural crossing where I grew up, "That's
a stupid sign to put at a RR crossing - I've never seen a train yield
for anyone!" It's not worth your life, and I don't think the government
should have to protect people from their own stupidity. Please wait the
extra 2 minutes!

Barbara H.J.