Is it really worth it?
I heard on the news yesterday that a woman in her 20s was killed by a train. ‘How horrible’, was my initial reaction, until they then added that she was on a bicycle and had gone round the barriers which were already lowered on the level crossing, and was hit by the train. I should have known that that was what had happened, as it seems to be an all too familiar story here. Just last week I heard there were long delays on one train line into Chicago because a man in his car had done the same thing and had been killed. Gordon reckons it happened a lot in the UK too, but I don’t remember hearing about it that often over there, whereas it seems to be at least a monthly event here.So you have one person who travels a journey that they probably already know in advance involves crossing a railway line, so therefore should just leave home 5/10 minutes earlier to allow for a possible delay if the barriers come down. But instead they obviously do not allow extra time for that, and then decide they cannot afford to spend the time waiting for the train to pass in front of them, so go round the already downed barriers. When you consider the size of a train (and they are sooo much bigger here than in UK) compared to the size of you, in your car, you know that is a fight you can never win.
So then, thanks to the stupid action of one person who can’t wait 5 minutes, the lives of everyone on that train, and everyone waiting for every train due to run behind that one, are affected by much more than just 5 minutes delay. Even if the train itself is not derailed and crashes, the driver is condemned to having nightmares and possibly not being able to go back to doing his job after such a harrowing experience. The passengers on that train and others waiting at the stations are condemned to having hours of delay whilst the whole mess is sorted out. All for the sake of saving 5 minutes. Surely it is not worth it?
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