METRA UNION PACIFIC NORTH TRAIN #339 SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE WAUKEGAN AT 5:45PM IS STOPPED JUST OUTSIDE OF THE ROGERS PARK STATION DUE TO A PEDESTRIAN INCIDENT. WE WILL PROVIDE UPDATED TRAVEL INFORMATION AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.
Translation: Someone got whacked by the train and was dragged several blocks.
Update: Sadly, this person has died too.
6:17 PM: The east side tracks will be live shortly. Trains will be moving soon.
Harrison Marcus...> "Metra's handling of the passengers stranded by this incident on the #339 (the 4:35) and the trains behind the 4:35 was deplorable. There was no communication with passengers either on the trains or forced to vacate trains onto various platforms."
9 comments:
I believe the London Underground calls this a "passenger action." When it's intentional, though. Every train system has its own euphemisms for train-hits-person. Always sad, but almost always so avoidable.
I was on the 5:10 (the train behind the one that hit the person) and I got home about 15 minutes ago. It looked like somehow the body flew or otherwise was knocked back to about Pratt and Ravenswood. My husband was waiting at the platform for me when it happened and although he didn't see it happen it was in fact someone who was on the platform that jumped. I'm just confused how a body getting hit by a northbound train flew southbound four/five blocks.
It's really tragic, but I begin to wonder how avoidable some suicides are.
Five of my friends killed themselves over a period of ten years, and all but one was under the age of forty, the other barely over 50. Most of the time, they made several attempts before at last succeeding.One was my best friend from my school years, and I still think about her and the others a lot.
Would it have helped for me to call more often? What would have helped? What is for certain is that these people all felt that there was no alternative for them. None was "crazy" in any normal sense of the word, and in the case of one, given the constellation of life circumstances (chronic, deepening illness, inability to make a living, constant physical pain)it might even have made rational sense, though I have a difficult time accepting it. I remember she'd apologize for "taking your time" whenever she called me or anyone else. In the case of another, no one, not even her parents, had any idea that she was so far advanced in depression and hopelessness, in fact did not have any idea that there was anything wrong at all.
The train was stopped at North Ravenswood and West Thome, just one block North from where I live (and just Southeast from Misericordia). When service resumed, I heard several trains whizzing by with horns blowing and in intervals shorter than normal. Train whistles are seldom heard in my neck of the woods.
This explains the two helicopters.
I wonder what it sounded like?
North Coast,
I discovered a friend from high school committed suicide. This happened over 20 years ago, and her and I hadn't been out of WY High School for that long.
A mutual friend of ours attended the funeral. She figured out what happened when she asked our late friend's parents what happened. The parents were embarrassed to reveal the details, of which they didn't give much.
I still wonder what drove my friend to take that option.
The "L" and Metra Tracks in Rogers Park are known for 'jumpers' according to what I am told. However, I am unsure whether all of them get the as much attention.
Perhaps, people are more stressed out in the City. Perhaps, we should all 'lighten up.' The London Underground's terminlogy seems a bit stoic; perhaps, it is more common across the pond.
A couple of friends have been on the red line when someone jumped in front of the train. One friend was at the front of the train when someone jumped off the Morse platform in front of a southbound train. The operator screamed and stopped immediately. She was terribly disturbed after seeing the woman jump right in front of her and being unable to stop in time. CTA refers to these as "person on the tracks" from what I've heard.
Between CTA and Metra trains, this happens more often than you might think, at least a few incidents each month. A while back, I got on a delayed Metra train and was talking to the conductor. He said that the train had hit a pedestrian at an outlying suburban grade crossing, and that all the Metra personnel on the train had spent a while reassuring the engineer that there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. He was still shaken by the incident, but had to continue his day's work. Metra usually refers to these as "pedestrian struck by train" or "vehicle struck by train."
I have a lot of sympathy for transit workers who end up becoming the instrument of someone's death because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They may not know the suicidal person, but that does not diminish the terrible emotional trauma.
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