Originally Posted by
Lemond1985
I would suspect that well over half of these deaths are suicides. How can a person, 1.) Not hear the train coming, and 2.) not look up and see a train coming before they step across RR tracks? Seems unfathomable without severe intoxication or a death wish.
I work in the rail industry. While suicide by train is a thing, you have to understand that modern locomotives are a lot quieter these days. It's not possible to tell from the photo, but in this instance we could be talking about an electrified railroad. Those locomotives are usually even quieter than diesel-electric power, especially when coasting. You also have to ask whether the deceased was wearing something like ear buds. As for sight, as it's been pointed out, one can be screened when there are two tracks. This sort of thing has happened plenty of times before with both cars and pedestrians.
BTW...Something like this is usually quite traumatic for the engineer. It has been reported that a victim's eyes seem the size of grapefruits when he/she realizes they just made a deadly mistake.