I lost all battery power on my BlackBerry shortly after climbing aboard the 5:53pm LSE, so I had no idea or fore-warnings of the dog and pony show that was sadly, a pedestrian fatality at Guildwood.
However, I did connect with the people around me to commandeer another BlackBerry and send a text to my husband so at least he knew, if we were going to be idle for hours, that I was stuck. Said networking led to a student sitting in my quad getting a lead at a law firm. See? Delays aren't all that bad.
This also meant I missed all the texts sent to me as people vented. I do have a messaging feature enabled on my phone that emails all texts to me, so I had some great reading material when I got home.
Yes, it was a suck-fest and yes, I agree that pedestrian fatalities are an annoyance and an inconvenience and yes, I do wonder why these people don't wait until 2am, but the reality is there are people who do decide to end their lives in this manner. It's unfortunate that the ones who are affected are those left to deal with the decision: the VIA engineer, the first responders, witnesses, the family left behind, etc. Our 35-minute to 1.5 hour delay (depending on what train you were on) pales in comparison to what these people just had to go through.
Or, there are people who choose to try to beat an oncoming train at a level crossing. I never understood people who do that. Maybe someone can explain it to me?
5 comments:
I saw the emails when I got in this morning. Then chatted with a co-worker all excited that we just missed the problems.
But still, 1.5 hour delay really isn't all that bad, especially if it really was an accident.
Many years ago on the subway I was riding in the first car sitting in the seats near the driver where you could see down the track. As we pulled into Jane station, someone jumped in front of the train, hit the front window and then we felt the sickening thump of running over him. I'll never forget that horror and I won't sit in those seats anymore. Very sad indeed.
If you've ever been on a train that has hit someone like Anon above I guarantee you wouldn't be complaining afterwards. It's worse if you on the train in the middle of nowhere because an hour and a half late would be a miracle.
We've had this discussion before, but I still think it's the ultimate act of selfishness that someone would choose to end their life in such a public way.
An old family friend - he was a TTC subway driver for years - once told us how often he'd encounter jumpers. Apparently it was a very common occurrence on the subway line, almost daily. You'll never hear that in the news, of course.
And that was back in the 80s. With suicide rates ever-increasing, I wonder if it's gotten worse since then.
Sad.
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