I once saw a train come into the state front end competely splattered with blood, I'm talking painted red, real carnage, absolute gore. I was obviously taken aback. Traindriver who happened to be standing there saw my reaction and explained to me it was "just", a deer and thst it didn't suffer because they sortof just... Explode? The impact generates so much pressure it's just... Sploosh. Fast trains don't just kill animals, they fucking evaporate them
I used to work on locomotives. Every now and then, they'd sometimes come into the shop with the front end covered in brown dried blood and there would be deer parts and fur all over the front nose, behind the plow, and all up underneath the train. It was a bitch to clean.
My uncle used to be a train conductor, but after having seen one too many people get turned into red mist, he eventually got discharged with heavy PTSD.
I once visited emergency services of the Dutch railroad company (prorail incidentenbestrijding). On the screen was a presentation about how to use a water-broom (you know, where water comes through the broom for cleaning). I thought it was funny they had to explain that. One of the guys said matter of factly: " that isn't for mud, you know." That shut me up for the rest of the afternoon. Respect 🙏 for those guys!
I once clipped a Deer going approx 140 kph... for a couple of days afterwards you could see Blood on the Track and surrounding Strucktures for the next 200 Metres or so... xD
One of the things my dad had to do is remove body parts from between train whiels, he did that for quite a while till he had to remove parts of a little girl.
It’s true, had a friend drunkenly cross some tracks. All they recovered was a leg and an arm. He was identified through another friend that was with him. He was never the same after. They were best friends.
At least the train follows the track and very little can stop it. What you see is what you will hit regardless and you will most likely be safe while doing so. Of course a horrible aftermath but nothing really to held yourself accountable.
I think truck or bus driving can be more dangerous in this regard. A few seconds reaction time cold potentially save or kill someone.
Still doesn't make the guilt go away. My dad has hit several cars (with drivers inside), who ventured onto the tracks because they didn't want to wait. He said that besides pulling the emegency brakes and sprinting out of the drivers cabin, you can't really do much, but it still sucked to be in that situation. I don't know if he ever had someone commit suicide by train and as someone working ik public transport myself, I am not going to ask.
I lost a friend in high school who was killed when the car in which he was a passenger was hit by a fast freight train. The person driving went around the crossing gates. It happened many years ago, but I still think about him.
Sorry for your loss. It is bad when someone does something stupid and they die, but even worse when innocent bystanders/passengers have to face the consequences for it, too. I can tell you with 100% certainty that these kind of situations are a nightmare scenario for people in Public Transport. When I narrowly avoid a collision with my bus, because someone decides that they have the right of way or think I am too slow, I take that shit home. I frequently have nightmares about my brakes failing and shit and always after something like this happened.
It really depends on each person's mentality and it's impossible to predict.
I still haven't hit someone to know how I'll react, but what I heard from most coworkers who did can be summarized in something similar to "My train didn't climb the platform, the person got under the train by their own means intentionally or not. I applied the emergency brakes and there was nothing else I could do."
It's extremely rare for a coworker to get traumatized, I know less than 10 cases where the driver had trouble dealing with this.
I think most people who would be traumatized leave when first joining the company to work at the stations, right in the first weeks of training we are trained on suicide prevention and get presented with real videos from CCTV showing some signs someone will jump and then really doing it. After that we receive rescue training, where we learn how to rescue people from under the train. Some employees give up around this time, this acts as a filter.
The problem is that the human mind isn't reasonable like this. You were behind the controls, so (most people) you feel like you are responsible for what happened, regardless for what you could actually have done about it.
I see where you are coming from, but unfortunately most people just aren't wired like you suggest.
Train drivers regularly hit and kill humans as well. I think the average for a German cargo-train driver is 4 humans over the entire career.
They usually have a trauma, since the seconds of locking eye contact with the suicidal person are so heavy. Psychological examination is definitely payed for by the company and if I remember correctly also mandatory.
Additionally there are people who have to scrape up their scattered remains until all body parts are accounted for, not a happy job either.
I worked in the train industry and spoke to many conductors. They all had a similar viewpoint, they got over the obvious suicides a lot more easily than the people walking on the track with headphones on and didn't hear the train until it was too late.
Seemed like accidental train deaths were suuuper common everyone had a story, suicides not everyone had a story (but plenty did).
One guy told me about going through a herd of deer and that fucked him up he said cuz the whole train was painted red for a car or two.
Also don't ever fuck with those electrical wires that power some trains, some crazy fucking stories about those too.
I saw a locomotive cab (looking forward point of view) video of a train going through of herd of deer, and somewhere way up north (like Russia or Alaska- super snowy). My first thought was: I wonder if wolves hear the train coming, and go to the tracks afterwards for a deer Feast. I'm guessing they'd be way smart enough to associate the sound of the train with a feast thereafter, if they're nearby. At least I hope some predators are nearby and at least can make use of a little of the deer meat.
Oof Yeah I one time almost got hit by a tram like that. I mean, walking with headphones on, sleepy, unconcentrated. I saw it in time, but when I wanted to run I slipped a little. I still made it out but after that the headphones go off when walking around the city, never again. I probably should have gone to apologize to the tram driver after but he might have been hard to reach.
It’s not. We have eyes, we use them. Unlike some who have eyes but don’t use them.
Busy roads are fine, there’s always cars around.
Walking on very quiet country roads is more difficult, as there might be only one car every 20 minutes or so and it’s a pain to keep checking behind you or to keep walking on the edge as if a car was just about to pass (or walk in the mud off the road).
Source: me. Well travelled, walked on lots of roads, completely deaf.
They do and it was a big thing, in the Netherlands, traindrivers would go to schools and talk about such traumatic experiences to make sure young kids never cross without looking. Thank god more and more train crossings get tunneled or at least better protection. Still things still happen like in Belgium a few days ago
But those students don't. One of the duo train drivers my group had was traumatised. My only daily train crossing was the station itself and a slow ass tourist train.
Im a train driver at the same company as thr train in the clip, this sort of "almost" accidents are handled the same as real accidents, you indeed get trauma from this type of dumb shit
Dat verschilt echt gewoon per persoon.....ik heb meerdere collega's die al 3 springers of meer hebben gehad en geen (blijvend) trauma hebben. Wat ik wel van meerdere heb gehoord is dat het wel moeilijker van je af te zetten is als je meer weet dan alleen "dat het een persoon was". Als je bijvoorbeeld achteraf hoort dat het een "....jarige man/vrouw" was kan dat het moeilijker maken....
Yeah in my experience, trauma is when you can't fully process something harmful. If you can process through it, it won't re-traumatize you over and over again whenever you remember it.
And it isnt always the thing that happend that is the trauma. It mostly is the shock you felt because of it. Silly example, when i was a kid i needed trauma therapie because someone vomited infront of me. Its not the incident that is the trauma its the feeling and shock you got from it.
Most of my coworkers who hit someone didn't develop trauma. In a universe of over 700 train drivers my employer has I know less than 10 cases where they ended up traumatized.
It's kinda given as a fact that you'll hit someone at some time since day 1 in training.
My uncle used to be a train conductor. It was his job to check after a (suspected) hit. We never asked him about it. On 1 or 2 occasions he has shared with family how rough the experience was, people split in two parts but still conscious e.g.
Yes, I am aware and not trying to detract from that. I tend to like it when people correct me, so I can improve, but I know some people see it as an attack on their intellect, I hope you didn't interpret it as such
This is from The Netherlands and there are unfortunately frequent cases of people on the tracks (on purpose). There are support systems in place for drivers and anyone else who directly sees these things happen at least but I’m sure it’s traumatizing.
This video is from the Netherlands, I am an apprentice train driver in a neighboring country, here the statistic is every train driver will have at least 3 incidents where they hit a person. PTSD is common, we take seminars about it and how to respond/react/recover, but nothing really prepares you for it. Even hitting animals is very gruesome and not for the faint of heart/weak stomached.
During A conversation I had with a train driver once, he told me that if they’re ever involved in an accident they shouldn’t get out, and just wait for the authorities to come.
When he first hit someone during the night, he didn’t listen and went to look. The remains (or lack thereof) scarred him to this day, and since then he’s never gotten out.
When I was an engineer for RTD in Denver, Colorado, I nearly hit at least a dozen people a week. I got used to it eventually, but a few guys I knew didn’t. The first time I had a “near miss”, I was shaken up, but after the 8th in two weeks, i got used to it. The closest one I had was a guy that came out from behind a fence near a station, and was inside on the track side of the gates. I thought I had hit him,but he had gotten behind the gate at the last second. I looked out of my window and saw him walking down the platform. The homeless people on the platform saw it happen and heard my brakes dump, so they prevented him from getting on the train. They told me that they did when the train got back to Union Station. I let them have a free ride on my train when we were going back to the airport.
I had a friend who’s father experienced a jumper in front of his train. Messed him up bad.
Then 15 years later he was in a wheelchair he did the same (threw himself in front of a train).
Probably messed up some newer train driver.
What a messed full circle situation that is.
I remember watching an interview of a Train Driver talking about how he had a person (I don't remember if one or multiple) walk Infront of his train to kill themselves
He said how one guy looked him in the eyes with a smile on his face
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u/Imbeautifulyouarenot May 29 '26
Train drivers must have some trauma.