[Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today, 04/05/10

Fri Jul 23 02:13:45 UTC 2010

It would be interesting to use some sort of extra long stethoscope to time 
how far off you can hear a train. Btw anyone ever put a penny on the train 
track and watch it get flattened?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
To: "Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety" 
<quietcars at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 9:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA 
Today,04/05/10

>
>
> Never tried it, but I've heard it's true.
>
> Debbie
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "michael townsend" <mrtownsend at optonline.net>
> To: "'Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety'" 
> <quietcars at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 2:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA 
> Today,04/05/10
>
>
>> Did you ever put your ear to the tracks to see how far away you could 
>> hear
>> the train?  Interesting experiment.  You can hear things for miles and
>> miles.
>>
>> Don't try this at home, okay?
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>> On
>> Behalf Of Deborah Kent Stein
>> Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 3:06 PM
>> To: Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety
>> Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today,
>> 04/05/10
>>
>>
>>
>> It's troubling when people are killed needlessly.  I completely concur 
>> that
>> pedestrians, blind and sighted, need to be alert to their surroundings, 
>> and
>> we must encourage that and reinforce it as much as possible.  As long as
>> trains make themselves heard in places where they legitimately come into
>> proximity with pedestrians, then their quiet operation elsewhere 
>> shouldn't
>> be a problem.  However, human nature is what it is.  I walked along many
>> railroad tracks in my young and follish days, totally counting on the 
>> notion
>> that I would hear the train in plenty of time.  Now people need to be 
>> taught
>> that this is no longer the case.
>>
>> Debbie
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "michael townsend" <mrtownsend at optonline.net>
>> To: "'Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety'"
>> <quietcars at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 6:30 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA
>> Today,04/05/10
>>
>>
>>> How is this troublesome?  Is it because some of the blame for quiet
>>> car responsibility is pushed to the pedestrian, or that the higher
>>> stats of teenaged accidents or deaths, whether they be caused by
>>> wearing music devices or suicide, may blemish some of the great work
>>> that the ACB and NFB have been doing regarding such legislation?  I
>>> think not, Deb, as our work should have nothing to do with this train
>>> reporting, except that it points out that people don't tend to pay as
>>> much attention as they ought to or that they aren't as familiar with
>>> pedestrian rules of the road as they pertain to the quieter vehicles,
>>> be they bus, train, car or truck.
>>>
>>> I think that this is exactly the kind of piece we need to alert those
>>> who travel in towns and cities where subways are readily available,
>>> and that quieter buses and trucks in towns with green intentions
>>> abound, and in places which are becoming more and more familiar in
>>> which hybrids are part of the landscape.
>>>
>>> I think that, coupled with this quieter environment, we are jostled
>>> about by persons who aren't paying attention to their daily travels as
>>> well, because they're too busy texting, talking on the phones, using
>>> GPS devices, etc., or just chatting away.  It would be incumbent upon
>>> us to not fall into those bad habits so that we can't be accused of
>>> the same.  Working a guide, while on the cellular phone, and listening
>>> to a GPS device may be doable, but at a great risk.  And, I would
>>> imagine that utilizing a cane under these circumstances might be even
>>> more involved.
>>>
>>> We had a comment about "hillbillies" liking their trucks and cars
>>> loud, last week during the convention season.  Now, it's time that we
>>> awaken ourselves with articles such as this to remind ourselves that
>>> we need to get back to tracking the business at hand now that the
>>> convention season is pretty well put to bed, at least on a national
>>> level; and that we have to work tirelessly to import our ideas to the
>>> state and local levels of our particular blindness organizations, be
>>> they guide dog schools, mobility training counselors, or state
>>> agencies from which we receive help.  , in order to make this quieter
>>> car or, more importantly, quieter vehicle issue a part of the everyday
>>> discussion.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>> [mailto:quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>>> On
>>> Behalf Of Deborah Kent Stein
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:46 PM
>>> To: Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety
>>> Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today,
>>> 04/05/10
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Very troubling.  Do we want to link this to our site?  It takes our
>>> concerns in a new direction, but it's certainly related to the work
>>> we've been doing.
>>>
>>> Debbie
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Nightingale, Noel" <Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov>
>>> To: <quietcars at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:30 AM
>>> Subject: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today,
>>> 04/05/10
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Quieter trains a risk to walkers
>>>>
>>>> By Larry Copeland
>>>>
>>>> Pedestrian deaths remain steady even as fatalities from train-vehicle
>>>> crashes decline
>>>>
>>>> Anna Marie Stickel, 14, missed the school bus that morning. So she
>>>> took a shortcut along some railroad tracks that made her trek to
>>>> school about 10 minutes; going the long, safe way around would have
>>>> taken 30-40 minutes, her
>>>>
>>>> mother says.
>>>>
>>>> Listening to her iPod as she and a friend walked along the tracks in
>>>> January, Anna Marie of Middle River, Md., was hit and killed by an
>>>> Amtrak train.
>>>>
>>>> Anna Marie's friend, who was not listening to music, heard the train
>>>> just in
>>>>
>>>> time to jump to safety, says Anna Marie's mother, Tara Stickel, 38.
>>>> They are
>>>>
>>>> deadly quiet," she says of today's trains and tracks. My baby girl
>>>> had no idea. I know for a fact she hadn't been told how dangerous
>>>> they are. And I am just as much to blame for that. I never saw those
>>>> tracks as a threat.
>>>>
>>>> Rail-safety advocates and federal authorities are trying to determine
>>>> how to
>>>>
>>>> reduce fatalities involving trains and pedestrians, which far
>>>> outstrip deaths in train-vehicle collisions.
>>>>
>>>> Over the past 10 years, the number of deaths involving trains and
>>>> motor vehicles has dropped 42% to 248. In the same period, deaths
>>>> involving pedestrians have fallen  6% to 434, the Federal Railroad
>>>> Administration says. That's (incidents with pedestrians) the No. 1
>>>> cause of death in the railroad industry," FRA spokesman Rob Kulat says.
>>>>
>>>> Rail-safety advocates are especially concerned about teenagers killed
>>>> accidentally by trains in hangout spots on or near the tracks. We are
>>>> working so hard to try to figure out a way to turn this around," says
>>>> Marmie
>>>>
>>>> Edwards of Operation Lifesaver, an international rail-safety advocacy
>>>> group.
>>>>
>>>> It may be that in some parts of the country, the railroad tracks are
>>>> a little bit secluded," Edwards says. So (teens) think it's a place
>>>> where they
>>>>
>>>> can go to just hang out without other people knowing what they're 
>>>> doing.
>>>> Sometimes, when you tell this age group this is not where you should
>>>> go, that's where they're going to want to go
>>>>
>>>> A quiet danger
>>>>
>>>> Trains are a lot quieter than they used to be.
>>>>
>>>> Rails are built in longer, continuous sections of track, so the
>>>> familiar "clackety-clack" of wheels on the track is gone in many
>>>> places. The trains themselves are quieter. Communities across the USA
>>>> have enacted "quiet zones," where operators are barred from sounding
>>>> their horns during certain times of day.
>>>>
>>>> That quiet is one reason the number of pedestrians killed by trains
>>>> has remained steady. Another reason: Many people wear headphones or
>>>> talk on cellphones while ambling along railroad tracks.
>>>>
>>>> When you have train tracks this near high schools or middle schools
>>>> and students use it as a shortcut, you really need to educate
>>>> children on what's
>>>>
>>>> going on," says Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., who helped set
>>>> up train-safety assemblies at Anna Marie's high school.
>>>>
>>>> People take shortcuts across the tracks. Hunters walk along them.
>>>> People ride all-terrain vehicles on them and sit on them to fish.
>>>>
>>>> Many people simply fail to understand how dangerous trains are, says
>>>> Richard
>>>>
>>>> Ratcliffe, executive director of Maryland Operation Lifesaver, which
>>>> puts on
>>>>
>>>> safety lessons for students and others.
>>>>
>>>> We tell them the train overhangs on each side by at least 3 feet, and
>>>> they can overhang by as much as 12," Ratcliffe says. We tell them
>>>> they don't build trains like they did, and they're a lot quieter. We
>>>> explain why walking or walking the dog or hanging out on tracks is so
>>>> dangerous and why it's against the law.
>>>>
>>>> Looking at suicides
>>>>
>>>> It's unclear how many of the deaths are intentional. Kulat says the
>>>> FRA does
>>>>
>>>> not track suicides but estimates that 20% to 50% of train-pedestrian
>>>> deaths involve people taking their own lives. Railroads reporting a
>>>> death soon will
>>>>
>>>> have to indicate whether it was a suicide.
>>>>
>>>> Of 33,000 annual suicides in the USA, 1%-2% occur on railroads.
>>>> Suicide by rail is "highly lethal, and it's accessible," says Matthew
>>>> Wintersteen, clinical psychologist at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson
>>>> University and a member of the Pennsylvania Youth Suicide Prevention
>>>> Initiative. If we can restrict access to lethal means, we can reduce
>>>> the number of suicides.
>>>> The
>>>> problem, of course, is ... can we restrict public access to the train
>>>> tracks?
>>>>
>>>> Among recent intentional teen deaths:
>>>>
>>>> *Two girls in Delaware killed themselves in February by stepping in
>>>> front of
>>>>
>>>> a high-speed Amtrak train. The girls had made a suicide pact,
>>>> according to police.
>>>>
>>>> *A high school freshman in Pleasanton, Calif., stepped in front of a
>>>> Union Pacific train near her school in February.
>>>>
>>>> Kulat says a freight train going 60 mph takes about a mile to stop
>>>> after the
>>>>
>>>> emergency brake is applied. You can't stop. You can't turn, obviously.
>>>> You
>>>> just have to watch it happen. ... There's the trauma that train
>>>> engineers go
>>>>
>>>> through (after hitting someone). They go through post-traumatic
>>>> stress counseling. The one thing they talk about is that they see the
>>>> people's eyes
>>>>
>>>> right before they hit them. A lot of those engineers don't return to
>>>> work.
>>>>
>>>>
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