Train Deaths at UD
I go to school at the University of Delaware. there is a freight train track that runs through the middle of town. It doesn't seem like it should be an issue, you can hear the trains for five minutes before they get to town and they don't go very fast. However, recently there has been a whole string of accidents and deaths on the train tracks. I believe there have now been three deaths in the past three months. It is really pretty freaky! It hasn't been a consistant problem in the past, but it sure is now!
laura and I were sitting in an IV meeting on Friday night. At about 8 we heard a train whisteling like crazy. Since people started getting run over the trains have been a lot louder as they come into town, trying to avoid any more accidents. Even so, the honking sounded excessive. I almost leaned over to Laura and made a joke about another person getting run over. I thought better of as soon as I realised that it wasn't funny at all and she was trying to pay attention to the service. The more I thought about it, the more it scared me. It's like something from a twisted movie where people are getting killed one by one and you never know who's next. I put the whole thing out of my mind, but sirens kept screaming by outside the open door.
The meeting ended presently and we spend a few minutes hanging out and talking with people there. I was happy to see that there actually are some Christians on campus and that they are kind and genuine people who are really excited about their relationship with Jesus. David plays drums for their worship team, and he was sounding really good!
Laura and I left and headed back to where we were parked, accross the tracks from where the meeting was. We noticed that there were flares blocking off several of the roads and lots of police around. Having forgotten about the train, we assumed that it was a car crash. As we approached where we normally cross the tracks we saw a cop car parked in fron of the tracks with his lights flashing. With a sinking feeling in my stomach I saw that the train was stopped.
We approached the cop and the train, stopping right in fron of the bar that blocks the road whenever a train is crossing. The officer approached us saying, "See where you are standing? Now you have brains! You aren't stupid. What could possibly ever possess somebody to cross that line, let alone get in the way..." He was indignant, frustrated, and slightly less than sympathetic. We stood there, not saying a word. What could I say? I just stopped walking those same tracks a couple of weeks ago because the police caught me and threatened to arrest me for trespassing. "Somebody get hit?" I asked. "Somebody got hit, somebody got killed." he answered.
He wouldn't let us cross the tracks there because of the train, so we had to walk a long way around to Laura's car. It had just stopped raining and there was still mist hanging in the air. As we were walking past the Deer Park Tavern we saw police tape around several train cars. As we watched, the paramedics set out a stretcher then unfolded a body bag. They lifted the body up and placed it in the bag, then loaded it onto the stretcher.
It was a weird situation. There was a body, but it had just been a human. It changed from a living person, an active, dynamic life to just an empty shell. I didn't see any family around, no friends. A group of guys stood a hundred and fifty feet away on the porch of the Deerpark laughing raucously. I hardly felt anything. My strongest emotion was anger at the guys laughing with no respect.
I realized that I was watching someone's worst nightmare. He had been somebody's son, somebody's friend. Now his body was slumped into a bag and zipped up by the harsh light of halogen lamps and police light bars.
posted by Ian - band member at 3/13/2005 12:40:00 AM
11 Comments:
thats a crazy story ian..
it is weird about all the recent train deaths..
I walked over a mile each way on those tracks every day for about 3 years. I used to park at Jason's old house and walk to school when I went to the U of D. I know that a bunck of people (I think 5 now) have been hit on the tracks this year, but honestly, you have to be either completely drunk or just a total idiot to get hit by one of those trains.
When linds and I would have class at the same time, we would walk and talk together. When I had class alone, I would just walk, think, and observe everything around me.
I met lots of very interesting people on those train tracks. I met homeless people, I met junkies who hung out under the bridge, I met rail workers fixing the tracks, I met poor people walking back from grocery shopping in town. The tracks were a haven and a highway for those who did not utilize normal modes of transportation and as different as we were, I shared something with each one of those people.
I am sad for the people who died, but I am sad that they are cracking down so hard on the walking.
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double comment, sorry.
A friend of mine was crossing the tracks somewhere towards Cleveland Avenue, however he wasn't on the main road. So as he walking up to the tracks, there a cop just sitting there by the tracks. He walks across the tracks and says hello, the cop then procedes to write him a ticket for trespassing on the railroad tracks. He told him it was for safety's sake. My friends argument however, was that if the cop was really worried about his safety, he would have said something to him before he crossed the tracks.
I agree with my friend.
I think the tickets are definitely justified, in light of just how many people are dying these days. I mean, it's the cops responsibility to make sure that people are off of those tracks, and warnings and signs and friendly reminders haven't kept 5 people from getting themselve killed. Newark Police doesn't have the staff to keep up a guard on the tracks, so they have to figure out a way to keep people off them even when they aren't watching. Fines.
Of course, I blame it all on alchohol consumption. Sober people are being punished for the stupidity of the inebriated. . .
I just wanted to say thank you Jason. Thank you for having the sense that inebriation is dumb. It's rather annoying when you are surrounded by people talking about getting drunk and what happens during and after, and then having them all think it's this wonderful thing that is so much fun! GET IT INTO YOUR HEADS PEOPLE!!! WHY DO YOU THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA IF YOU BARF AND DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DO AND LOSE IMPORTANT THINGS, SOMETIMES EVEN FRIENDS OR YOUR LIFE! Plus it's bad for your liver... getting drunk is a bad idea. I'm not saying that you're a dumb person if you ever got drunk I'm just saying that if you look at the situation logically it doesn't hold water... makes me sad.
So thank you for realizing that it isn't the best thing in the world. It's encouraging.
A herd of buffalo can only function and move as fast as the slowest buffalo. When the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first, natural selection. This is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole is maintained or even improved by the regular culling of the weakest members.
In much the same way, the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells through which the electrical signals pass. A recent epidemiological study has shown that while excessive intake of alcohol kills off brain cells, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.
Thus, regular consumption of beer, wine etc., helps eliminate the weaker cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. The result of this in-depth study verifies and validates the causal link between all-weekend parties and job related performance. It also explains why, after a few short years of leaving a university and getting married, most professionals cannot keep up with the performance of the new graduates. Only those few that stick to the strict regimen of voracious alcoholic consumption can maintain the intellectual levels that they achieve during their college years.
So, this is a call to arms. As our country is losing its technological edge, we cannot shudder in our homes. Get back into the bars. Quaff that pint. Your company and country need you to be at your peak, and you shouldn't deny yourself the career that you could have. Take life by the bottle and be all that you can be. Forward this to all of your friends, acquaintances and co-workers that may be in danger of losing their edge.
There was a long article in the News Journal today about train crashes/deaths in Newark... in the past 10 years, 15 people have been hit, 6 of whom have died, and 12 of whom were drunk and on the tracts in the wee hours of the night. One guy parked his GMC Jimmy on the tracts at 2 am on N. College after the truck got stuck there... Luckily for him he wasn't in it when a train smacked into it a little while later. Another guy was sitting on the tracks sometime after midnight and didn't have time to stand up before a train hit him (he was ok in the end). He would have a good excuse if he was a deaf paraplegic and couldn't feel the vibrations from the train... So, its pretty clear that its not the trains' fault people get hit. But all the same the City of Newark is trying to get the trains to re-route around the city. We'll see what happens... I'd say re-rout 95 so it doesn't go through the U.S! Horses would do just fine.
Two drunks saw a guy siphoning gas from a car. The one said to
the other, "I hope I never get THAT thirsty.
Keep the edge....
cheers
Jeremiah Johnson
MY son was a victim of a train accident 3/1/05. There have been 12 deaths and only 2 survivors in the last several years in Newark by the University, My son was an engineering major , in his junior year living off campus for the 1st time, with no knowledge of the danger he was in. The college never addressed the issue of the tracks , the danger ever at any meeting or orientation I attended. I attended every single one, being from new york my son had no idea that if he walked along side of tha train that he was in any danger,. In new york it is Ilegal to have any object protruding from a train, as he walked parallel with the train he was hit by the metal staircase with the impact of 19 miles an hr and 52 cars behind him. NO ONE CARED, not the school nor the county of newark , not the police.It might interest you to know that they have laws inacted in the state to protect the Unviversity of Delaware and the train from letigation. They cant be forced to do anything to protect people . Many of them young people who may do foolish things ( they are young after all) but they dont deserve to die or be destroyed by the lack of humanity . My son survived but not without pain that i have never seen nor do i ever want to again.mulitple injuries. surgeries, skin graphs, broken body parts and too much to explain.It took him over a year to walk . They lied in the newspaper as to what happened and played down his injuries. I find it discusting that the police dept , the.Unversity of Delaware and the State of Delaware care nothing for human life .If your care to know more feel free to contact me.No one knows better how they have played this situation down, lied about the deaths, put false statements to absolve the railroad/college. They even made me pay his tuition bill 3 weeks into teh semester.You are correct the dead person is someones loved one . Everytime I hear of another death my heart breaks for the people left beind and the discusting situation that still exhists in that area. Its all about money .A dead kid every few months is accpetable as long as the train keeps running and the university gets their money...
cathy lombardo ( licats @aol.com)
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