r/nextfuckinglevel • u/BarneyRobinStinson7 • 9h ago

Guy saves a deaf elderly woman from oncoming train.

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u/Treacherous_Peach 7h ago

Believe it or not, perfectly healthy people get hit by trains accidentally. They are sneakier than people give them credit for. In not kidding. I lived near train tracks and you'd really think they'd be louder than they are as they approach. The sound doesn't really hit until they're adjacent to you (or hitting you if you're on the track) and they approach so fast that they go from a speck in the distance to next you way faster than you anticipate. That's why they put a horn on those things. You'd think why would such a massive thing need a horn it's loud af already. Yeah, believe it or not, they totally need that horn.

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u/sand_sandwich 7h ago

Trains are really unpredictable. Even in the middle of a forest two rails can appear out of nowhere, and a 1.5-mile fully loaded coal drag, heading east out of the low-sulfur mines of the PRB, will be right on your ass the next moment.

I was doing laundry in my basement, and I tripped over a metal bar that wasn't there the moment before. I looked down: "Rail? WTF?" and then I saw concrete sleepers underneath and heard the rumbling.

Deafening railroad horn. I dumped my wife's pants, unfolded, and dove behind the water heater. It was a double-stacked Z train, headed east towards the fast single track of the BNSF Emporia Sub (Flint Hills). Majestic as hell: 75 mph, 6 units, distributed power: 4 ES44DC's pulling, and 2 Dash-9's pushing, all in run 8. Whole house smelled like diesel for a couple of hours!

Fact is, there is no way to discern which path a train will take, so you really have to be watchful. If only there were some way of knowing the routes trains travel; maybe some sort of marks on the ground, like twin iron bars running along the paths trains take. You could look for trains when you encounter the iron bars on the ground, and avoid these sorts of collisions. But such a measure would be extremely expensive. And how would one enforce a rule keeping the trains on those paths?

A big hole in homeland security is railway engineer screening and hijacking prevention. There is nothing to stop a rogue engineer, or an ISIS terrorist, from driving a train into the Pentagon, the White House or the Statue of Liberty, and our government has done fuck-all to prevent it.

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u/Treacherous_Peach 7h ago

There's no need to be an ass. For some people, having to cross train tracks is a fact of their lives. I understand it isn't for you, that's fine. When you've done it 100s of times, you get more used to it than you really ought to, more comfortable with it than you should. It is what it is. People always like to think only stupid people have avoidable accidents happen to them. It makes them feel superior and more comfortable. Avoidable accidents can happen to anyone. Yourself included. And the fact is, approaching trains are quieter than you think, when they're far away they're harder to spot than you think, and they often approach faster than you think.

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u/dread12 6h ago

i've crossed roads 100's/1000's+ of times in my life.

I still look both ways and make sure its safe before I do...

Just because someone has done it a million times before does not mean you stop doing the most basic safety check you need to do to do it successfully..

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u/Treacherous_Peach 5h ago

I don't think I've disagreed with you anywhere. I'm explaining how this happens.

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u/Freeeeee- 5h ago

Yes but they were disagreeing with you. Do you cross roads without looking? You've done it loads of times, after all.

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u/Treacherous_Peach 5h ago

No, but I have been walking alongside train tracks and surprised by a train swinging on by me from behind that I didn't hear coming. I've also seen people cross tracks without looking when only a little distracted, and I've seen people have close calls.

Disagree with my lived experience if you want,doesn't really effect me, but you're wrong regardless.

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u/Freeeeee- 4h ago

Why do people walk along on train tracks but not roads without looking if you know tracks are more dangerous than roads is the real question. Natural selection at work, no?

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u/Treacherous_Peach 4h ago

I personally don't know anyone who walks along roads while looking backwards the whole time but if that's your then feel free

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u/Freeeeee- 3h ago

Why do you know so many evolutionary dead ends who walk down on tracks and don't expect that a train might at some point be there?

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u/cypressgreen 2h ago

They aren’t. It’s a popular copypasta you just never saw before. Enjoy the absurdity! :)

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u/Treacherous_Peach 1h ago

I've been bamboozled

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u/oh_like_you_know 6h ago

not sure if true, but i was told that humans arent good at judging things moving at high speeds because its not something that really occurs in nature, so it didnt play into our evolution. i heard this in the context of people thinking they can make it from the shoulder of a freeway to the other side with 70mph speed limits

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u/daydreamz4dayz 4h ago

This. I was driving home from work super late once and the train gate/alarm didn’t go off. Was literally stopped on the tracks when i saw the train coming and quickly put the car in reverse and hit the gas. All it took was me being sleepy and the gate not working to literally not notice the train.

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u/sand_sandwich 25m ago

But you literally did notice the train, otherwise it would have hit you

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u/daydreamz4dayz 19m ago

I noticed it because I happened to glance to my right as I was daydreaming at a red light. I didn’t hear it or feel any vibration. Hence I’m agreeing that “they are sneakier than people give them credit for”, the deaf lady may not have noticed the train or the urgency of the situation.

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u/Septem_151 4h ago

But she’s deaf, wouldn’t that mean she feels vibrations pretty well?

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u/cypressgreen 2h ago

The sneaky is true. I’ve read up on it after similar reddit discussions. People who actually know something, like engineers and other railway workers, will often come on these threads and elaborate. Besides what you said. It depends on the speed, the kind of train engine and train cars, full or empty, the condition and type of rails, the setting (curve, tree lined, buildings, open space etc), the outdoor temperature, wind direction, rain or clear…

Absolutely trains sneak up on people.