If your in Maine, and see the sun, PLEASE, do not lay down on the train tracks to try and tan.
http://wbztv.com/local/maine.train.crash.2.735463.html
LEBANON, Maine (AP) ― Two teenage girls sunbathing on a railroad trestle lost limbs when a train came upon them unexpectedly in this New Hampshire border town, police said Wednesday.
The girls were lying on beach towels on the trestle over Three Mill Pond when the train rounded a corner and began braking and blasting its horn shortly before 11 a.m., said Lt. Gary Fecteau of the York County Sheriff's Department.
The conductor and engineer say they never saw the girls move, but their injuries suggest they tried to scramble away at the last moment, Fecteau said.
Destiny Phaneuf, 13, of Lebanon, lost her leg just below the knee; Rachel Brown 14, also of Lebanon, lost a foot, Fecteau said. Both were airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Crews searched the water for their lost limbs, Lebanon Fire Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Coty said.
The girls were cutting class and enjoying the sunny weather when the freight train came upon them, Fecteau said. There's no indication the girls were impaired by alcohol or drugs, or that their hearing was impaired by headphones, he said.
Phaneuf was unconscious when authorities arrived; Brown told police that the pair had fallen asleep while sunbathing, he said.
Duke
Dork
5/29/08 12:14 p.m.
Not impaired by alcohol or drugs... does natural stupidity count as an impairment?
LMAO Darwin strikes again! :grin:
You just KNOW there's a PI lawyer up there somewhere frantically searching for a way to make this the railroad's fault.
Those trains have no right to be on those tracks!
They need to heed the right of way to pedestrians!
That train conductor was most likely intoxicated or impared by drugs!
That train was defective!
The tracks were too hot and their skin stuck to the tracks. All railroads should be replaced with this other alloy that has a 5% cooler ambient temperature.
Or, you know, give these two families $100k and never hear from us again.
I feel bad for the crew. I'm a fucking rail nut (FRN) who knows a couple of railroad workers (not from this particular line, the New Hampshire Northern), and they say it never gets easier when they hit someone.
I think Maine has a law saying that the railroads aren't liable for someone being on the tracks since you shouldn't be walking/tanning on the tracks in the first place. If NHN gets sued and loses, though, it will be another loss for common sense.
That, or send the girls each a bill for the cost of the lost revenue for the stopped train, emergency workers' time, environmental damage caused by their limb litter, and mental anguish for the conductor because of the blood he had to see. Oh, and don't forget track cleanup and a new paint job for that trestle. Maybe make them pay for a whole series of PSAs about train right-of-ways. Make them examples for other stupid people.
Stupid should be punishable.
Duke
Dork
5/30/08 6:06 a.m.
Stupid doesn't need to be punishable - it's actually self-punishing in its natural habitat. It's only our current system that seems to reward stupidity.
Duke wrote: Stupid doesn't need to be punishable - it's actually self-punishing in its natural habitat. It's only our current system that seems to reward stupidity.
But only if you hire the right (wrong?) lawyer.
I feel for these kids. I have a 10 year old daughter, and it would absolutely destroy me if something like this were to happen to her. But I'd have to be honest and say 'she did it to herself' in a case like this.
:nice: Limb Litter, I have to remember that:nice:
