Why Would Someone Go To Sleep On Train Tracks? (Santa Ana: how much, buy)

[psr13]

The really crazy thing is that people in the comments are blaming Metrolink. My husband and I used to live right there. Four of his sisters still live there, and the entire track is surrounded by fences. You cannot in any way get on the tracks without climbing a fence.

[coo77]

Originally Posted by psr13

The really crazy thing is that people in the comments are blaming Metrolink. My husband and I used to live right there. Four of his sisters still live there, and the entire track is surrounded by fences. You cannot in any way get on the tracks without climbing a fence.

It seems like a few people blamed Metrolink on the L.A. Times website, and then luckily 10 times as many people called that minority crazy. First, Metrolink does not own the tracks. BNSF Railway does and it is their right of way. Also, all of the train tracks are well fenced off from homes and streets in the stretch between Lake Forest and San Juan Capistrano. For at least 7 miles there is not a single street crossing and in Mission Viejo the tracks are in a ravine with fences blocking access. This is simply an act of stupidity, suicide, or the more likely case: drugs or alcohol.

If somebody fell asleep on a freeway, nobody would blame Cal Trans when that person got hit. Same thing for a railway. Its for trains!

[Huckleberry3911948]

as a kid walked the tracks all the time but knew when to get off.

[MIKEETC]

The closest I've ever been to the tracks was to lay pennies on the rails for the trains to flatten...good, clean fun.

[Infidel64]

Way back, when I was in law school, there was some drugged up lady (I seem to recall her name was Jackie something-or-other) who passed out and her toddler wandered out of the apartment and onto the Metrolink tracks and was killed. I remember the heated debates in our classroom about the negligence/criminality of the mother's actions vs. blaming Metrolink. I never bought the "blame Metrolink" argument then, and I don't buy it now.

Here's another interesting tidbit of info ... a long time ago I read an article about illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the US. The article was about the large number of immigrants being killed by trains. The article went on to state that the immigrants believed that sleeping on the train tracks would prevent them from being bitten by snakes, because apparently snakes don't cross train tracks (???). Never really understood that concept either. But, just thought I'd offer that up as a possible reason why someone might choose to sleep on train tracks.

[stan4]

Lumbar support.

Or is that lumber?

[Lew_B]

Now the families will sue every entity they can possibly name, settlements will be paid, and of course a new law named for the "victims" will be placed on the books to protect others from the misleadings that train tracks are better then serta matresses.

[LASam]

Originally Posted by coo77

If somebody fell asleep on a freeway, nobody would blame Cal Trans when that person got hit. Same thing for a railway. Its for trains!

Agreed. At some point, individuals need to be responsible for their own actions...

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

If they were teens why were they out all night in the first place? Where are the parents at? As the father of 6, 3 of whom are teenagers I would want to know where my kids were at during those hours. It may have happened at 6am, but you know for sure that they didn't just get there, get drunk, and fall asleep on the track at that time. It isn't too hard to watch your kids is it?

[Lovehound]

The answer is simple: drugs, liquor or both. Come on! This is a no brainer!

One of my hiking routes is along the local railroad tracks. Of course I am not consuming drugs or liquor, and when I walk on the tracks I remove my earphones.

Anybody who gets run over on the railroad tracks is probably participating in Darwin's Law, the survival of the fittest. Let's just hope they got taken out of the gene pool before they were able to have children, so that they don't pass those stupidity genes onwards.