Dozens killed on railway stretch (BBC News)

[RF News]

British Transport Police reveal 25 lives have been claimed on a single stretch of railway line in under three years.

More from BBC News...

[LesG]

Simple thing is,

If someone wants to commit suicide then they will get on to the track anyway, no amount of fence or talk will stop them.

Its the poor train crew I feel sorry for.

Les

[bramleyman]

The track, which is run by Network Rail, is a major commuter route between Cambridge and London.

WHY don't the BEEB get facts right? Cambridge has always been between Kings Cross and Kings Lynn, NOT Kings Lynn in the middle.

One driver had a fatality some months back, then returned to work and had another a few weeks later and I knew him when working on that line. I had heard that the Cambridge to Liverpool Street had more than Kings Lynn - Kings Cross.

Like LesG, it is the drivers I feel sorry for and more than those under the train.

[hairyhandedfool]

EXTRACT FROM MEDIA RULE BOOK:

RULE 1

Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

[paul miller]

The media, be it the local paper or the good old Beeb, are always going to sensationalise everything, and as Hairyhandedfool says, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
They dont even think of the misery and pain that these events cause, not only to the families of the people who kill themselves, but just as importantly the poor devil that has drove the train.
Paul.

[bramleyman]

Too right and then the media HAVE to say "The family/driver is too upset to talk." HOW exactly do they think they should feel, perhaps throw a party? Sorry for the rant, but the Media get to me when they write the most obvious.

[Foghut]

Originally Posted by bramleyman

Too right and then the media HAVE to say "The family/driver is too upset to talk." HOW exactly do they think they should feel, perhaps throw a party? Sorry for the rant, but the Media get to me when they write the most obvious.

In addition to this most railway staff have a gagging clause in their employment contract, so that if the media approaches them they HAVE to say, "I'm sorry I can't comment". This is then "spun" to become "too upset to comment".

(As an aside this clause also enables the company to call it's staff...drunken, greedy, lazy, etc...and the employees can be sacked if they talk to the media to put their side across. Which is another reason that we have unions to represent us, I guess )

[Deathbyteacup]

Stories like this always get me. While I always feel for people who find themselves in a situation where they feel they must end their own life, I just wish people would at least not do it by throwing themselves in front of trains because the drivers of trains can be really effected and sometimes never return to work.

I don't think it's fair on the drivers at all, there should never be a situation where someone throws themself in front of a train.

[John H-T]

Originally Posted by Deathbyteacup

.......there should never be a situation where someone throws themself in front of a train.

I do so wish this could be so. Sadly many of the people who do this in the London Area and elsewhere are victims of arranged marriages, and can see no other way out.

[Deathbyteacup]

I agree that people sometimes see no other way out but to end things, but, and I hate to say it, there are other ways to go about suicide without potentially destroying another life in the process.

Having said that it's always going to be a nasty business however it's gone about. It's a shame it happens.