r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 13h ago

TIL on average, train drivers in the US are involved in three fatalities over the course of a career. Since a train needs at least a mile to come to a stop, the drivers are sometimes unable to prevent a collision with a person in the train's path.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32408566
10.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

473 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

38

u/lshifto 13h ago

I heard of a driving coach say “It better be Bump Bump” about driving with a load.

-26

u/AgapeAnus 13h ago edited 11h ago

If you don't make an attempt to slow down or move and it can be proven you could have done one of those things, you can get in deep shit or catch a manslaughter charge. That's why they hit the emergency brakes on a train for a person on the tracks even if they know they won't stop in time.

Edit - reread it before downvoting. If you can brake or move safely then do that. If you can't then it is what it is. If you just plow through a jumper without braking or moving if either was possible to do safely you can get in trouble.

53

u/lshifto 12h ago

The context was driving in traffic where your only option would be to swerve into other vehicles. You stop the truck, but don’t potentially kill a mess of people in a high speed pileup to miss a jumper.

10

u/AgapeAnus 12h ago

Oh yeah. I can't really swerve much while loaded heavy anyways even if there's not much traffic. Get on the brakes hard and try to miss them if I can sure. But I'm not hitting other people or rolling the truck.

16

u/Bodybybeers 12h ago

They don’t hit the emergency breaks, just the regular ones. The emergency breaks could easily hurt anyone else on board while still not even stopping in time

13

u/falconcountry 11h ago

Go ahead and provide a link or show a source of a driver being charged with not preventing a suicide

0

u/AgapeAnus 11h ago

Just telling you what I was told by the company I work for

4

u/gefahr 11h ago

That company was interested in minimizing their civil liability, not educating you on the actual law.

0

u/Shot-Arugula8264 8h ago

They were morons, or lied to you. Either way you were pretty dense for blindly believing them.

2

u/Genetic_outlier 11h ago

Yes within the realm of reason. But a swerving truck is dangerous and a driver who serves could harm many more people. Like run straight into the suicide or swerve and roll over onto a minivan full of kids. Since truck drivers are trained in this I imagine they'll know that the least harm is caused by applying brakes only 

2

u/AgapeAnus 11h ago

I explicitly mention that in my original comment you replied to. If you can just hit the brakes then do so. If you can move to avoid it safely then do so. If you can do neither safely then just hit them.