Posted on 01/16/2022 12:07:31 PM PST by algore
Atlanta public transit CEO Jeffrey Parker committed suicide on Friday night after stepping in front of a train in the outskirts of the city.
Parker, 56, was struck at the East Lake station in Atlanta at 10.30pm, a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority official told DailyMail.com.
No motive for his suicide has been announced. He is survived by his wife Erin and his daughters.
MARTA Board of Directors Chairwoman Rita Scott described him as 'an outstanding leader and steward of MARTA whose passing leaves us all heartbroken.
'We are devastated at this loss as we valued Jeff's leadership and looked forward to him bringing his vision for transit to fruition. The entire metro Atlanta region owes him a debt of gratitude for his transformational efforts and we will not stop working to build on the foundation he created,' she added.
Parker was named general manager and CEO of the agency in March 2018. Since then, he has overseen transit expansion plans, helped negotiate a three percent annual raises for workers and led the agency through a Super Bowl and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Parker helped lead MARTA expansion plans, such as a bus rapid transit line in Clayton County, one of the counties that make up the Atlanta metro area, according to the AJC.
He requested funding for the $300 million project through the Federal Transit Administration's Small Starts Program.
In 2019, Parker called for a $100 billion 'moonshot for transit' investment, as the region's population was set to grow by 2.5 million people by 2040, the AJC reported.
The massive funding goal - which would have vastly shadowed a $2.7 billion, 40-year plan approved by Atlanta voters in 2016 - didn't go well with some lawmakers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
stepping in front of your own train sounds like this was personal.
Hmmm… was he vaccinated for COVID-19. He likely had no thoughts of suicide prior to those shots. /SARCASM
I think it was probably stress, probably a lot of it related to the fact that he was living in Atlanta. The rest of Georgia is pretty free, but Atlanta was very locked down, and the political situation has gotten worse by the minute.
Suicides often make symbolic gestures, and this was definitely one of those.
And after the Braves and Dawgs won their championships? Guess he wasn’t a fan.
Soooo, he either had dirt on Hillary or knew something about Epstein.
Right?
If Kemp were smart, he would be sure a forensic accountant took a good hard look at this public servant’s affairs. Someone had to make the money paid to the Georgia election fraudsters look legitimate. Wonder who and what organization that might have been?
More importantly . . . was the train wearing a mask or even double masked?!?! Or was the guy who committed suicide. Maybe he woke up and realized he only had one mask and couldn’t deal.
After all his work to expand bus/trains for an extra 2.5 million people by 2040, only to realize democrat-communist policies will reduce the world population by half in that time. Must be very depressing.
Still not as cool as Richard B. Russell just want to barrel roll a stolen plane and call it a life
No snark, please. This is very tragic. He killed himself there and in that way because it was a statement.
Sometimes suicides like this are meant to blame somebody, sometimes they’re meant as apologies, sometimes they’re just the product of a black moment brought on by some sudden crisis.
I think he’d probably been working too hard, the situation in ATL is nuts, and he just didn’t do the really right thing, which would have been to throw up his hands and walk away. He was obviously proud of the job he had done, and then something happened.
I don’t know and we’ll probably never know (especially if it involves powerful people in Atlanta or the Fed Gov.). But that doesn’t matter. It’s not a joke.
Even bigger question, could FR posters stop associating every single death with Covid? It’s beyond not funny now. This is sad, and it reminds me of a boss of mine who was so stressed about work he did something similar.
He certainly did NOT improve transport services that day.
Strangely, the head of Chicago METRA did the same thing several years ago.
“ Work related” death benefits?
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-metra-executive-dies-in-apparent-suicide-by-train
I don’t know anything about his situation, but yes, stress can do a number on one - it’s nothing to joke about. You can really feel trapped and think you don’t have any options.
“He stood on the tracks and he faced the train as the train was coming toward him,” Nygren said.
Seeing as how there must be other ways less icky to off oneself, I think you are right.
"They'll look down at my little dad body and they'll be sorry." Metaphorically of course, since there is probably not much left to look at.
Talking about the lockdown stress etc, I wonder why those most emotionally affected don't go the other direction and get homicidal on those they see as responsible for the situation? Seems more logical to me. At least in my way of looking at things. I know very well that the elitists screwing me will not suffer a bit knowing they drove me to offing myself.
He got a look at 2021 numbers and decided this was the easy way out.
Live life on the fast track
End life on the fast track
Except you leave some poor engineers with a ruined life of horror
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