Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Retired
As a kid I was dared into " Skitching " grabbing onto the rear of a bus bumper after a blizzard .
Fun until I fell and almost got run over by a car following behind. End of story. Lesson learned.
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I grew up in Kensington, Brooklyn a few blocks from the decrepit LIRR Bay Ridge freight line. Kids used to 'hitch' rides on the moving freight trains, jumping on near McDonald Avenue and usually jumping off around the East 18 Street overpass.
I never forgot this. One day in around 1966 a kid from my catholic grade school was riding on the roof of one of the freight cars. He brushed his head against the 11kv overhead catenary wire which provided power to the massive electric locomotives pulling the train. He was killed instantly, his body laying on the top of the freight car. As the train headed east people in the apartment buildings looking down on the right-of-way called the police. This was in the days before all freight trains were equipped with radios so they weren't able to stop the train until the cops went on the tracks and flagged the train down further up the line.
A school buddy told me that he was playing outside when a cop car with a priest went into this kid's house. The cops came out crying.
If you thought that this tragedy kept kids from 'hitching' you are wrong. But it did keep kids from riding on the roofs of freight cars.
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