Posted on 09/06/2008 9:40:33 AM PDT by SmithL
Steven Fulk, of Davis Ferry Road, died in the 5 p.m. Thursday incident, said Loudon police officer Bill Shirk.
Shirk said Fulk was walking westbound between the rails when a westbound train approached near the State Route 72 overpass. Fulk's back was to the approaching train.
The train operator repeatedly blew a horn to warn the man, but Fulk did not respond, Shirk said. Investigation by the Loudon Police Department, Shirk said, determined that Fulk was listening to an iPod with headphones "and apparently never heard or saw the train." . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
I don’t believe it.
The guy is dead. So their discussion of him using a “shortcut” and “not hearing the train” is speculation.
If the tracks are really a shortcut, it wouldn’t be in between the rails (where there are ties that are easy to trip over — there would be a worn path next to the track.
It is much more likely that the guy decided to kill himself, and chose a train. He couldn’t watch the train because he’d freak out, so he put on headphones and walked away from the train.
If he turned up a pair of ipod headphones loud enough that he couldn’t hear a train whistle 50 feet behind him, he’d have blown his eardrums.
When I was a teenager, I was an avid roller skater, even worked there to get free admission and tips; I routinely walked across the trestle to get across the Monongahela river that formed at the bottom of our house.
Many of us kids did that, we knew the schedule of most trains but that didn’t dissuade us from keeping a close eye and our ears perked up.
We even practiced running to get to the worker platform which was there to allow workers to step aside to let a train pass.
It was about twenty feet down and we were all accomplished swimmers.
Still scary.
Have a friend who is an engineer for CSX. He says this is the kind of stuff that gives train crews nightmares...
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