2009-07-07: Gruesome

Death stops everything in its tracks on the tracks. I would've been home at a comfortable 18:30 today, after a 7 minute train ride. Instead, about a minute before pulling into the train station (and coincidentally within a very short distance from my house), the train came to an emergency standstill. Not long after, the passengers were told that the train had hit "something or someone". This turned out to be a "someone"... a young woman.

Although this particular incident may have been an accident, the sad fact is that this usually isn't the case. I feel very sorry for a person that feels the need to take their own life, but I feel ever more sorry for some other people. Several hundred people being delayed for 2 hours while the police investigate and clean up suffer what is little more than an annoyance. The police and railway officials who are confronted with the gruesome some are not so lucky however. Then there's possible witnesses at the railway crossing, who saw somebody get mangled before their eyes and of course, the train driver who can't possibly stop the train in time and is forced to watch as the vehicle he is controlling thunders over a person. From what I gather, the average train driver experiences this more than once during their career. It just boggles the mind.

No person of sound mind ought to kill themselves this way, although arguably nobody who commits suicide is of sound mind.