OT: I ran over a man on Friday., In a train, that is. Options

[Rick_Eberle]

Well, I guess this qualifies as a bad day at the office.

Friday morning at 8:35, a beautiful day, driving a train at 80 kph with maybe 1400 commuters on board. I see a guy sitting beside the track, say 50m away. He stands up, and starts to walk across the track. He stops in the middle of the track, turns to face me and waits for it.

I blew the horn and slapped the brakes into emergency, but was probably still doing 70 when I hit him. Trains don't stop like cars, so it took about 300m to stop. I called control to let them know, then jumped out and ran back, and found him under the fourth carriage, folded in half, unconscious but still alive. There was nothing I could do to help him, and in the state he was in I probably would have caused more damage if I had tried to move him, so I headed back to the front of the train to update the train controllers, and make some PA announcements, and wait for my relief.

So I'm off work for a week or two. Maybe I'll get some work done on the 914! The turbo tie rods I got from the club store are waiting to be installed!

[jsteele22]

Wow,

I don't know what would suck more than that. But its good to see that, even though most on this forum are guys, there's plenty of encouragement to get some kind of counselling. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a nice cold beer and watch a rugby game, but I'd definitely second the opinion about talkng to someone. From the sound of it, there's absolutely nothing anybody in those circumstances could have done - no snap decision, no extra precaution, no specialized training or skill, nothing. It just happened. But I think it's just human nature to go through it again and again and say "What if...". Anything that can help you work out some of that stuff is sure to pay off in the long run.