Emerson Professor struck by train while on bike
 

heard about this, this morning. watching the video on TV this morning it looked like one train can be stopped blocking your view of another oncoming train. I wonder if that's what happened & if maybe there should be a crossing gate that closes when a train is approaching like they have for cars

excerpt:
"Moses Shumow was riding his bicycle on a pedestrian "cut-through" lane at Beverly Depot station in Massachusetts Tuesday morning when he was struck by a train. Shumow, an associate professor, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries"

https://www.necn.com/news/new-englan...563691281.html

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f5ce4ac8e0.jpg

That sucks. In my town, if there is already a light rail train in a station, an arriving train will wait until it departs so that there is only one train at a time in the station.

Tragic but ... rare? I'm thinking yes. I'm guessing there aren't significant (any?) numbers of commuters being hit by trains in stations in this city. So I wouldn't even speculate as to a 'fix'. None is indicated. None is warranted. Sounds like the deceased made an impact on his colleagues and students in a fairly short time.

I knew someone who got killed in California while she was crossing tracks on foot at a similar place. It's really the same situation as a vehicle in one lane screening the second lane from view of the pedestrian at a crosswalk, and that's a major cause of pedestrian fatalities.

The familiarity of an area can also be an issue in many of the train incidents.

I had a friend who fortunately escaped serious injury when a train struck their car. Their house was along the bank of the Mississippi River with a common neighborhood access road that had to cross tracks to reach the highway. The driver was so accustomed to constantly crossing the tracks that it became commonplace and he got careless about it. Fortunately the train just clipped the car, but 6 feet more and he would have been gone.

I think we all fall victim to the familiar without noticing. I know that I pay more attention and am more cautious when driving or biking in an area that is new or unfamiliar. Add in stress, haste, distraction, etc. and it is a formula for disaster. Unfortunately, when the conflict is between a human and a train, the train almost always wins. Can they add more gates, more signs? Sure - but it is impossible to remove the human element. I have to constantly remind myself to drive or ride defensively.

As a side note - I recently read that pedestrian and bicycle deaths from auto accidents are up nationwide - forgot the exact figures and can't find the documentation now. The article did list distraction as a significant factor.

.

Emerson Professor struck by train while on bike Thanks for this post, @rumrunn6. I’m a fellow Metro Bostonian with him.

My routine cycle commute parallels a Commuter Rail line, even with a convenient station within a few 100 yards of my workplace. It does have those pedestrian crosswalks across the tracks of the two parallel in- and outbound routes. When the two trains are in the station, the later train always stops short, as described by @SactoDoug.

The trains discharging passengers always wait until the conductor has observer all the riders crossing the path from the right-sided exits of the train. I presume the engineer has a view of anyone crossing from the other side.Since the station is so close and I don't want to wait outside, I may cut it close to get there. Occasionally when I'm rushing to catch my outbound train home as it is in, or approaching the station, I have to carefully consider crossing the tracks, especially if the train should start traveling again.

In my case, and in the incident of the OP, I think #4 best applies, "You don’t have the right-of-way until the other yields it to you," particularly when your view of intersecting traffic is obstructed, and the oncoming vehicle is a locomotive. :eek:

I am always attentive to the street crossings in these well-populated suburbs, and wait for the crossing gate to lift. Once though, a couple decades ago while riding in Detroit, myself and a line of cars was stopped at a RR crossing. After the train was well-passed and out of sight, the gate still did not lift. Since I was at the head of the line, I manually pushed the gate up, opening the road ahead; my only violation of a RR crossing.

Having worked a few train/pedestrian scenes I think it all boils down to this; you only have to vigilant around train tracks. No train ever turned in front of someone, ran a stop sign or changed lanes without signaling. It's tragic that these things happen but they do, with some regularity. RIP to the person in OP and all the others who make the mistake of not giving the laws of physics the proper attention it deserves.

"Hit by a train" might well be the most avoidable cause of death on earth. While the train may have been the mechanism in this case, complacency was the cause.

complacency: [kuh m-pley-suh n see] noun, a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like

I would suspect that well over half of these deaths are suicides. How can a person, 1.) Not hear the train coming, and 2.) not look up and see a train coming before they step across RR tracks? Seems unfathomable without severe intoxication or a death wish.

But the state of mind of the deceased at the time of death can be difficult to prove, and relatives may not want to believe the person actually killed themselves, so they might prefer to believe it was an accident, and may even sue the railroad on the theory it was an accident. Or maybe they know the person killed themselves, but are trying to squeeze some money out of the RR.

I'm telling you though, if I was on a jury of one of these cases, I would have a very difficult time believing the RR had any fault when someone steps into the path of an oncoming train, with three blinding headlights, no ability to steer, and whose horn can be easily heard from 5 miles away.

So here's how it happened to the person I knew--the Caltrain has express and local trains running the same route on different tracks. When the local train stops at a platform, the express train passes on the track to the left of the local train. She crossed in front of the local train, which screened her view of the express track. As she stepped out from in front of the local train, she was struck by a locomotive going more than 50 mph. She wasn't around to ask afterwards, but I would guess the sound of the idling locomotive on the platform didn't allow her to hear the oncoming train.

If you didn't before, now you know why you often see signs at grade crossings indicating the number of tracks. E.g., "TWO TRACKS" When there are multiple tracks you should always wait for the lights to stop flashing before proceeding through a crossing because there could be another train coming from your right that you cannot see due to the train that just passed through the crossing. I have led bike rides where I have had to tell people in the group top wait after a train has passed.

I work in the rail industry. While suicide by train is a thing, you have to understand that modern locomotives are a lot quieter these days. It's not possible to tell from the photo, but in this instance we could be talking about an electrified railroad. Those locomotives are usually even quieter than diesel-electric power, especially when coasting. You also have to ask whether the deceased was wearing something like ear buds. As for sight, as it's been pointed out, one can be screened when there are two tracks. This sort of thing has happened plenty of times before with both cars and pedestrians.

BTW...Something like this is usually quite traumatic for the engineer. It has been reported that a victim's eyes seem the size of grapefruits when he/she realizes they just made a deadly mistake.

It's possible to tell without a photo. In fact the MBTA Commuter Rail trains are all diesel-electric locomotives.

Moses Shumow Obituary: Former FIU Journalism Professor Leaves Lasting Legacy of Empathy

-mr. bill

Mr. Bill has correctly identified this as a diesel line. However, it's a Chicago-style push-pull system with a locomotive at one end only, so half of the time the train is headed by a passenger car with a cab in the front. I can hear these trains coming from pretty far off, but have no idea what the ambient noise is like at that crossing, or if two trains were involved.

While a local highway was under construction, changing from a two-lane to four, they'd close two lanes at a time to work on them and let people drive on the other two. People coming up from side streets got used to just driving across the half that was closed without even looking. On the day they opened all four lanes to normal traffic we had two t-bones with people who didn't realize it was open and just cruised across without looking just like they were used to. After that the state put up electric portable signs saying USE CAUTION - ALL LANES IN USE. So yeah - complacency. Also, signage.

Most train accidents involve a "hidden" train. Especially at crossings where there are no gates. The motorist at the head of the line (who has been delayed the longest) fires up the engine when the last car comes into sight and the INSTANT the train passes the road that motorist in front blasts off right in front of a train coming the opposite way totally eclipsed by the first train. Very very common. Pedestrians as well. Same issue.

I've seen it personally where a bunch of tourists were about to step out in front of a trolley hidden by a train in New Orleans. I likely saved someone's life by shouting at the group as they began to spring out from behind the passed train with a trolley on the next track. I know to look UNDER the train blocking my view of parallel tracks behind it. And look both ways like at any other road crossing.

So remember: It's the SECOND train that gets you! Same with auto/truck traffic. Rule #1 . IF YOU CAN'T SEE, YOU CAN'T GO.

Yep. That's why I felt frustrated when drivers in one lane decided to block an intersection (no traffic light), with a long line of traffic at a standstill: as a result, I couldn't see the other lane at all, whether there were any vehicles coming.

My only guess was that, perhaps, the drivers were concerned that, if they left room at the intersection for others on the sidestreets to cross or turn in the lane in front of them, that they'd, continually, have other drivers keep cutting in front of them. But, all I wanted to do was cross the road, not "cut in front of them."

There's a reason why signs exist, saying, "Do Not Block Intersection."

For years, I lived in a place with a "light rail" system that had plenty of these cut-through lanes at the stations. They definitely required sensible riding and awareness of all inbound and outbound trains. Nature of the beast.

My own guideline when crossing such things: , assuming that tracks = oncoming train, unless visually confirmed otherwise. Might usually be the case that there's not one there, not one coming. But the risk of betting incorrectly on that one can be deadly. It is what it is.

IF there's a clear and unobstructed view, then I can visually and aurally confirm whether there's another train on the other side of the first one. Else, I'll assume there's one there, barreling along, and capable of striking me the moment I dip a toe onto those other tracks.

Same as on a city street, with cars.

No telling exactly what this guy's particular circumstances and thought processes were, but it looks like he wasn't cautious enough by half.

People may tend to believe there are warning gates, lights or bells to alert them but not only isn't this necessarily the case, they also don't look for the train or have distractions such as loud music or earphones/headsets for their devices...or they just cross because they've never seen a train on those tracks.

Union Pacific has operated events here in the past to promote safety but it has been a while. There is Operation Lifesaver with ads featuring a man who crossed the tracks everyday and never paid attention until his last ride was in a hearse.

The ads for the air conditioners and heaters that say, "It's hard to stop a Trane" aren't just wordplay.

I'm surprised they allow people to ride the bike across the tracks in the station rather than forcing people to get off their bikes and walk across the tracks which may promote more vigilance.

Busy rail stations usually have a couple of different solutions (for pedestrians).

• Single end entry/exit. This allows one to simply walk on the platform from track to track without actually crossing rails.
• Underground walkways. A bit of a pain to go down and up, but again, no way to get on the rails.
• Our local Amtrak controls the crossing to only allow crossing at certain boarding times.
• Pedestrian bridges (usually over all the tracks)

Thanks for that comment @livedarklions; indeed that is how the trains are configured. I guess the one train only in the station rule applies here, at least on the trains on my line.

In fact, I know my inbound train homeward is delayed when the outbound signal light is red and that train will wait outside the station perimeter for mine to pass.

So, do the trains have a video system so that the engineers can see what is going on in front of the train no matter which direction it is going?

Obviously they can't stop on a dime, but they can blast a horn that'll wake the dead.

In a single locomotive push-pull train there is a locomotive on one end and a cab car at the other end. The engineer moves to the appropriate control cab.

Beverley grade crossings and station are “quiet zones” - no horns except in an emergency. There is no report of a horn used.

The trains enter the station sounding bells, which could are not much louder than an idling diesel-electric locomotive.

It will be months and months before a report is released.

-mr. bill

This -

Several years ago I watched a video in which a friend struck someone in another vehicle. My friend had a dash-cam mounted and the other person rolled up to the road from on a long gravel drive, and pulled dead into my friend's path without checking up.

The other person died. My friend was traumatized for a long while afterwards.

RE, the incident in question: I'm saddened for the professor's family. The event comes as a painful and visceral reminder that our life can change, or end, in an instant.

The pedestrian RR crossings on the Commuter Rail lines I am familiar with, including the Beverly Depot station in the OP incident are only a few yards long and wide since the train tracks run closely parallel to each other.

Otherwise the tracks, at least in the station, are separated by a chain link fence. Outside of the stations, I’m sure the RR rights of way are fenced off too.

Of a historical note,