Jan. 7, 2011 / Charlotte, North Carolina
A male pedestrian was struck and killed by a passenger train near the University of North Carolina. He had his back to the 4-car train when he was hit. "Police said earphones and an MP3 player were located near the scene."
Jan. 14, 2011 / Santa Fe, New Mexico
Amanda Byrne, 18 of Rowe, N.M., was jogging along the tracks in Rowe and did not hear the train's warning horn as it approached her from behind. "The engineer made several attempts in alerting [her] by sounding the horn several times." Byrne was wearing a headband that covered her ears, and was apparently listening to music on an earpiece. The engineer of the train carrying 125 passengers from Chicago to Los Angeles applied the emergency brakes, but was unable to avoid striking and killing the teenager.
Jan. 17, 2011 / Flagstaff, Arizona
A man whose name is being withheld was walking his dog on railroad tracks when he was struck and killed by a freight train. "Police say the man was walking in the same direction as the eastbound train and apparently didn't hear the train's warning horns because of the headphones." The dog survived.
Hmmm... At the risk of sounding heartless, Natural selection is working... I'm glad the dog was ok. It's a pity, however, that lives were lost when tragedy was avoidable.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling my daughter to take off the earphones while in the street; no trains there, but lots of other vehicles.
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