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The driver's view: 'The memory of a rail suicide never leaves you'

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philthetube

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If you have a oneunder there is no interest to anyone who the driver is, it would have happened whoever was driving, while trying to recover the last thing you need is for everyone you meet asking about it, which is what happens if people are aware. If fault is involved then names can legitamatley be mentioned but not for someone involved in an unfortunate situation while doing their job.
 
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SPADTrap

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Why are they scumbags? Did they insinuate he was at fault or something?
For naming the driver in the first place.... That's no one's business and not relevant in the slightest. As is the names of ANYONE involved. People are sick. I'd be off sick and directing my company to the rag for the cost.
 

IainG81

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At the station i work at on the GWR main line we've had our fair share of suicides it's a very selfish act in my view you leave it up to railway workers to see sights that never leave you.

I have been offered counciling to process sometimes it comes to you when your home at work your too busy and you see them in your dreams and quiet times when you think.

I'm not a driver, but we all have your back when this happens.
 

Steve Harris

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For naming the driver in the first place.... That's no one's business and not relevant in the slightest. As is the names of ANYONE involved. People are sick. I'd be off sick and directing my company to the rag for the cost.

If you're driving along in your car and a child steps out into the road and you hit them and they die, would you want your name in the local paper?

Probably not ! But i bet it will be! Especially if you get arrested. As the press report information that is released by other agencies (courts/police etc).

I'm certainly not defending the press here but you might be trying to shoot the carrier pigeon rather than stopping the pigeon getting released in the first place!

Afterall, the press are only passing on information given to them or which is already within the public domain.
 
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Mathew S

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Typical scumbag press.
Careful please. Most journalists will have little to no idea of why including the names of the drivers may not be a sensible thing to do, as explained earlier in the thread. It's standard practice when reporting on legal proceedings, including inquests, to use the names and job titles of everyone involved. Indeed, before reading this thread, I would have done exactly the same thing.
 

Mathew S

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As the press report information that is released by other agencies (courts/police etc).
We also don't report information if those agencies, or others like them, ask us not to. If anyone - drivers or whomever - is seriously worried for their own safety or wellbeing, there are mechanisms to apply to the court for reporting restrictions blocking publication of their identity (usually a 'Section 46 order' but Coroner's Courts may be different, I'm not certain).
Speaking as a journalist, anyone who is genuinely concerned should contact IPSO on 0330 123 2220 for advice as soon as possible - don't wait for your name to be published first. IPSO will, if they feel it's justified, issue guidance to editors asking them to withold publication of your identity. This is going to get off topic again, so I'll shut up, but I'm happy to provide specific advice to anyone who's concerned if they PM me.
 

AlterEgo

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If you're driving along in your car and a child steps out into the road and you hit them and they die, would you want your name in the local paper?

If I was giving evidence at an *inquest* then I would fully expect my name to be included; it is a matter of public record. A journalist isn’t a scumbag for reporting the facts.
 

locomad46

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During my time on the railway, I do recall one Great driver who it was said had 3 jump-jockeys during his time. It sadly later 'killed' him as he was to suffer a fatal heart attack at a youngish age and in all seriousness, he turned out to be one of the Best drivers I had the sheer Pleasure of working with. I am deliberately withholding details of where I was based at the time, or his name as it will Never bring the man back to life, to say the least. When I very first saw him, I had NO wish to even know him, but looks WERE deceptive to say the least, believe me.

I will confess, I AM a Spiritualist and this driver HAS come to me via what we know as a Medium since and I was taken by surprise by it.
 

locomad46

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If I was giving evidence at an *inquest* then I would fully expect my name to be included; it is a matter of public record. A journalist isn’t a scumbag for reporting the facts.

Back in 1991, a driver I worked with in October 1990 and I attended the Inquest of a young man who had been hit by another train, but we found him still alive, sadly dying the next day. Whether or not my name made the paper I do not care. We just did our best to help the man all we could.

As we left the inquest, his mother and brother thanked us for at least trying to help, while his father blamed the railway for him being On the track in the first place. I will just add, I do NOT trust all reporters in what they write following news items I have given them and they rewrote them to read different to the truth.
 

BestWestern

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Why are they scumbags? Did they insinuate he was at fault or something?

I would be irritated, to put it lightly, that some low rent hack had included my name without permission, for no reason at all other than to pad out a news report in a local rag. A driver may be struggling after such an event, press coverage isn't going to help. I dare say for most people if their mother died next tuesday they probably wouldn't want the local paper writing an article on it. It's unpleasant and utterly selfish, as of course are the press in general.
 

D365

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I've been travelling to courses in an NR blue fleece (no hi-vis) and been harangued by passengers when we have been delayed, as if I am personally responsible.

For similar reasons I would tend to be careful about covering up my company logo when travelling out of office :D
 

Panupreset

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I never gave evidence at the inquest, it was a documentary inquest, whatever that means? Obviously I gave a statement to the police as part of their investigation. I didn't consider that my name could subsequently finish up in the press, perhaps it is something I should have thought about?

As far as I am concerned, I have been back at work a while now and it's time to move on from the whole tragic event. Kicking up a fuss about being named just drags the whole thing out further. If a journalist thinks it's newsworthy and ok to give the names of those involved then that's their prerogative. It's no more for me to tell them how to write an article then it is for them to tell me how I should drive a train.
 

Chris M

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According to Essex County Council: "A documentary inquest is an inquest that only considers evidence on paper – no witnesses are called to give evidence."

The evidence on paper will consist of things such as the statement you and others gave to the police, the police's report, medical records, etc.
 

SodTheDrummer

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Excellent thread dealing with some difficult stuff, which i can identify with in my non railway life - different scenarios, same issues. Respect to all railway staff who have to deal and live with these 'incidents'
 

bramling

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For similar reasons I would tend to be careful about covering up my company logo when travelling out of office :D

One can get accused of being responsible for a delay just by standing in a particular place and "looking official" (whatever that means).

Over time I've become increasingly irritated with this. I don't mind helping people who have the decency to ask "do you work here?", as some do, but if someone comes marching up and demands, or worse if they are abusive, then nowadays I tend to ensure they end up on a wrong train or something, as patience is something which runs out and over time I've become fed up with making allowances for people.
 

stut

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One can get accused of being responsible for a delay just by standing in a particular place and "looking official" (whatever that means).

Oh yes, it doesn't take much. I've stood in a hospital wearing work clothes (i.e. smart shirt and trousers) and had people coming up to me asking for medical help (I can do many things, but being a doctor is not one of them...)

These days, I work for a company involved in air travel. On the occasions I have to go to the airport terminal, I make sure there is not a single hint that I work for the company in question visible. I do get asked things, but I think I just have that kind of face - I'm the kind of person who gets asked for directions when I'm on holiday.
 

Adlington

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An interesting point of view by a retired American driver ("engineer"):
Trespasser strikes, the whole dirty truth
Following a double-fatality trespasser strike May 9 near Richmond, the news outlets and social media were awash in their ritualistic gasps of astonishment as to how two individuals could possibly have found they way into the path of a 79 MPH Amtrak train and been killed. Police and nearby residents noted that teenagers frequent the right-of-way, either as a shortcut to get from one neighborhood to another, or simply walk the tracks, earbuds connecting them with their source of entertainment, while disconnecting them from the reality of the peril lurking from behind—or in many cases, coming right at them.

Having been involved in a half-dozen fatalities during my 35-year career, and painfully listening to my 33-year-old locomotive engineer son recount the three trespasser strikes he’s endured in his comparably short 15 years with Amtrak, it’s hard to respond to well-intentioned folks, expressing their sympathy with families of those who lose their life, by asking them to have the same degree of empathy and compassion for the train’s engineer and crew. No one seems to realize that we are the ones who witness the last precious seconds of human lives, who scream helplessly in our locomotive cab, shouting curses heard by no one other than ourselves, simultaneously petitioning the Almighty with plaintive prayers to intercede through divine intervention to prevent the inevitable, while at the same time begging him to keep all wheels on the rails, the train in one piece, and our passengers and crew safe from injury. It’s something you never want to experience if you can avoid it.

It is said that when you die, your entire life flashes before your eyes. When your train takes the life of a trespasser, THEIR life plays out on your consciousness for the rest of YOURS. A continuous loop, repeating itself over and over again, in the middle of the day, the middle of the night. You torture yourself sometimes, wondering if there wasn’t something you could have done.
 
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