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Man struck and killed by commuter-rail train in Uphams Corner
By adamg on Thu, 08/02/2018 - 10:06am
Transit Police report a train fatally hit a man on the Fairmount Line tracks at Uphams Corner around 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Police say foul play is not suspected.
Because of the investigation, some afternoon service out of South Station was delayed, because Keolis uses the Fairmount Line to ferry trains from its Readville yard into town for the afternoon rush hour.
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Comments
Man may have been on bicycle
as one was at the scene. Reported by just one station with help from helicopter video.
https://www.wcvb.com/article/person-hit-killed-by-commuter-rail-train-in...
Those are not open tracks and
Those are not open tracks and there are no road crossings, you have to go through barriers to get onto them, not likely a cyclist unless they hopped a fence and chose to ride on the tracks themselves.
He was on a bicycle, I know
He was on a bicycle, I know who the victim was I lived with him recently. The story I heard was that his bike got stuck on the track and he thought he had time to save it before the train got there and his head got hit. No idea what he was doing in the tracks but I can verify he had a bike with him.
Question?
How many people have lost their lives on the commuter rail lines, subways and by being hit by MBTA buses this year?
Far fewer than are killed in
Far fewer than are killed in car accidents.
Far few than are killed
by guns.
TP's victim blaming here is shameful
Very cold blooded for Transit Police to announce this as basically 'Trespasser Struck While Trespassing'. A man died. Have some respect. If they also wanted to issue a public safety warning to stay away from the tracks, they could have done that in a more graceful way. Otherwise, this trumpeting of a petty misdemeanor over the loss of life looks cold and heartless. They could have publicized this tragedy in an entirely different and respectful way.
Explain how the headline is wrong
There's a chance he was just wandering the tracks, or maybe he set out to be hit. Either way he was where he should not have been and got hit by a train.
People die in car crashes when they are driving too fast and hit something (for some reason, usually a tree.) The headlines for those tend to be "[town name] man dead in car crash. Speed a factor." Would that be victim blaming?
Headlines Are Within Hours
Definitive statements of cause don't come til much later, following investigations and formal findings. So not such a good analogy, because you'll probably never read a headline like that which states culpability immediately after the tragedy.
For all we know, the Keolis conductor may have done something outside of procedure that compromised safeguards put in place for just such a situation of man-on-tracks. Point is: Assign blame later / Acknowledge the tragic loss of life - with respect and dignity - first.
The MBTA report does read really cold-blooded and lawyerly. They could have done a lot better considering the loss of one of the citizens they are charged to serve.
Did the train swerve?
I don't see how train crew, and specifically the conductor, could be at fault.
This is the brutal truth
He was trespassing.
This is an extraordinarily dangerous thing to do. Roughly 400 people a year are struck and killed by trains and in the vast majority of those incidences the victim was trespassing on the railway's property/right of way.
Maybe if this gets repeated enough, starkly enough, people will learn to stay away.
Have some respect indeed.
How about some respect for the innocent train engineer, for whom this is a horrific life-changing experience? I think promoting the narrative that the deceased was killed because he was where he was not supposed to be, is entirely respectful.
Train accident at uphams corner
Please everyone
Have some respect is right
Please for all parties involved
Train personnel, victim, family, friends
Its a tragedy
So
Don’t describe what happened at all?
I mean a simpler headline would be “person dies”.
No, TPD was 100% correct.
No, TPD was 100% correct. Unless you are a railroad employee, ANYONE else on the tracks for ANY REASON is a trespasser, regardless of their intent. You're ONLY concern should be for the crew involved and those passengers on board the train or platform that may have had no choice in witnessing the event. If you go around the gates when down, YOU ARE TRESPASSING. If you decide the tracks are nice place for a walk, YOU ARE TRESPASSING.... it's pretty simple folks.