RailRoadFan.com

From the Associated Press @ 12:15:

LIMA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a pedestrian has died after being hit by a train in Washtenaw County.

State police Sgt. Mark Thompson tells The Ann Arbor News that authorities were called to the train tracks in Lima Township around 11:30 p.m. on Monday. Joyce Williams of Huron Valley Ambulance says the person was pronounced dead at the scene.

WWJ-AM and WXYZ-TV report investigators were working to determine Tuesday morning why the person was on the tracks.

The person's name wasn't immediately released. A road near the track near Dexter was shut down amid the investigation but has since been reopened.

Probably most likely Amtrak.

peter

I heard that he was a railfan trying to get some night shots of the Amtrak train.

NYCMan wrote:I heard that he was a railfan trying to get some night shots of the Amtrak train.

Night shots at 11:30am? He's gonna have a tough time doing that.

peter

PerRock wrote:

NYCMan wrote:I heard that he was a railfan trying to get some night shots of the Amtrak train.

Night shots at 11:30am? He's gonna have a tough time doing that.

peter

The article states 11:30pm and 354 was delayed, arriving at 4am into ARB yesterday (this morning).

I thought Most railfans were smarter than that.

Ypsi wrote:

PerRock wrote:

NYCMan wrote:I heard that he was a railfan trying to get some night shots of the Amtrak train.

Night shots at 11:30am? He's gonna have a tough time doing that.

peter

The article states 11:30pm and 354 was delayed, arriving at 4am into ARB yesterday (this morning).

Oh how interesting. It was posted to the wire around noon. I read the 11:30, and presumed it was am. Go figure...

peter

Back in THE DAY the timetable instructions with something like this that resulted in a death...you would leave someone in charge of the body until authorities arrived and the train would have moved on to its destination. Perhaps the flagman would be stuck with the body for a spell and then Mr Coroner wiould drive up in his 48 Ford and relieve the man.
Those were the days...

Those were the days...

Yeah. Just like they close major freeways for three or four hours to take a few measurements, and pics of skidmarks.

Dexter Leader News; Dexter man struck, killed by train in Lima Township
http://heritage.com/articles/2015/05/13 ... 369968.txt

My first guess would be suicide.

Man killed by train near Dexter fell asleep on tracks, records show...http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/ind ... rt_m-rpt-2

Sadly, this paves the way for the Estate to sue Amtrak. As a suicide, Amtrak could defend itself claiming no contributory negligence. But, now it is not a suicide. According to the article, the train engineer saw the sleeping bag laying across the tracks well in advance of the impact, but the engineer did not attempt to stop the train until way too late. A smart attorney will turn that into negligence! Yes, there will be some argument in court over percentages of negligence, given the apparent large volume of brewed hops (beer) intake, but a jury is likely to tag Amtrak with some of the responsibility given the fact the engineer saw the sleeping bag but did not immediately stop the train. There goes the profits for this year! Oops, Amtrak runs at a loss in Michigan, so no lost profits, just more loss.

Lay on tracks get killed by train. YOUR FAULT. Lay on Freeway get killed by Bus,Truck,Car. YOUR FAULT. How about the guy who laid on the track take some responsibility for this AND what he/she did to the engineer, who now has to live with this forever! Move along..................................

All of the tracks in and around Dexter are curved enough to the point where at the speeds Amtrak does travel in that area there wouldn't be enough time for an Amtrak to stop even if the Engineer did put the brakes in emergency as soon as he saw an object that did look like a sleeping bag.

Hogger is correct that there are a lot of curves around Dexter. But, between Dexter and Chelsea (where this event took place) there are some fairly straight segments of track. And, I agree that the guy that decided to lay down and sleep on the tracks should be 100 percent responsible for his drunken stupidity. But, sound logic does not stop a lawsuit from being filed, and Amtrak is famous for paying out settlement bucks to avoid having to go to court. That is the sign of the times these days. Courts are clogged full of lawsuits. Judges order the cases to go to "mediation". At mediation, all that is is a strong-arm tactic where some "unbiased third party attorney" strong arms one side or the other to pay the other "hush" money, irregardless of the facts.