4/04/2011
A sad accident
Foreign student fainted and fell into the MRT tracks and both her legs were run over by the train. She has been here only a few weeks and wanted to learn English. Now she is going to live her life without her legs.
Some are angry why there are no dividing screens to prevent people falling into the tracks. I ask, why can’t the trains slow down as they approach the station to a more reasonable speed to allow the driver to slam on his brakes in an emergency? Why didn’t the driver stop in time?
I have seen many crazy drivers coming to a screeching halt at traffic junctions even when they knew that the lights are red from a distance. Is it such a big hustle to slow down the trains? If they can go down to a speed enough for emergency brakes, you don’t even need the expensive dividing screens. Oh ya, the whole system will slow down and people will kpkb. As I have suggested, the trains can go on a higher speed in between stations to catch up for lost time. Ok, I am ignorant of how the train operates. Maybe it cannot be done and need a $6 billion system to improve it.
It may be difficult to stop in time when someone intends on suicide and time it at such that the train is near enough before taking the plunge. In normal accidents, there could be some time interval to see the impending accident. Anyway, the best solution is to stop operating the trains.
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9 comments:
"Why didn't the driver stop in time?"
I think they should reevaluate the system and perhaps install an automatic sensor that will slow down the train as it approaches the station. Is that more costly than installing dividing screens to prevent people from falling onto the tracks, I don't know.
Of course nothing can stop people who are suicidal and are adamant on taking their own lives.
And again, the noisy ignoramuses display their lack of understanding of math – especially when dealing with Big Numbers.
SMRT transports around 40-50% of the population everyday – let's call it, 2 million. In a year SMRT moves oer 0.7 billion souls, in 2 years, say 1.4 billion.
Count the number of accidents (i.e. bona fide errors of judgement, human error, just pain old bad luck), and also count the number of suicides and attempted suicides.
This incident as horrific as it is – and I don't wish to downplay this tragedy on the victim and her family's part – but it is statistically insignificant which means knee-jerk reactions are more often emotional outbursts rather than rational response. The barriers installed on some above-ground stations are just in 2 words: fucking ugly.
The best response is for the vic to make a home-made video warning people to 'be careful when taking the trains' and upload it to youtube:
Hi my name is ___. You can call me 'stumpy'. I come from a village where most of the kids have had their limbs blown off by land mines. I came to S'pore to better my life and get away from land mines. And now I'm sure you folks are laughing at the the irony... and so it goes. 'Edu-tainment' – it's a lot more effective than anything else the knee-jerk morons can come up with.
Pay attention to your environment...not the silly widgets on your iPhone!
And yeah, bad thngs happen to everyone. – every day there are many people who just fall prey to stinky, old fashioned bad luck, as many other people also benefit from 'a welcome coincidence' or 'good luck'. I know, I know... It sucks. And it is unfair.
I have travelled extensively overseas, taken and observed many mass rapid transits or trains (like SMRT) in many countries. Such accident is rare even though there is no dividing screens or fencing between the track/train and the platform. Why? In fact, I do not see any fencing along river side and I have never heard of people felling into the river. Why? Singaporean is truly unique. There must be some reasons that I do not know.
They may tell you that people here like to hurl themselves at passing trains. Don't mention suicide, because even the MSM never report them. It is a dirty word.
Redbean, the crux of the matter here is money again. Some smart alec in the SMRT felt that installing barriers are a waste of money. There is no sense of urgency in these arsehole.
It is not difficult to get these barriers installed in quick time to mitigate the risk of fallen passengers, for whatever reasons.
Some will argue that these barriers are not foolproof to prevent people who are determined to jump track to end their life. I say yes, if they choose to jump, they will get across the edge no matter what. But this case here concerning the Thai student is 100% preventable.
SMRT is the errant party. Heads in the management must roll (literally speaking). This is pure negligent on the part of the SMRT.
I hope these arseholes don't get to wait for any victim before saying, "Yes, circumstances had proven that there is a real need to have the barriers up immediately." CCB to these phuckers!
I only have two questions. Must the train charges into the station at such a speed that it cannot stop in time during emergency?
Are the drivers supposed to look out for people falling into the track or any danger that could cause an accident, and to take avoiding actions?
redbean:
> Are the drivers supposed to look out for people falling into the track or any danger that could cause an accident, and to take avoiding actions? <
I certainly hope not.
The driver's first concern should be fot the passengers on the train.
It is already very clear and illegal for anyone to be on the tracks. If you are on the tracks, it is your responsibility.
Say you rush out into traffic, and someone hits or runs into you -- that person happens to be a law-abiding driver -- can you fault that person for not stopping? I don't think so because you are not supposed to be rushing out in traffic like that.
There is also no time for any driver to make the judgement of "Oh that girl fainted, better slow down".
Get real lah. Your wild speculation and suggestions border on the insane!
Matilah, one of the first case law for law students is about a drunken man lying in the middle of the road. In your layman opinion, the driver has the right of way to roll over him.
The law says otherwise. The man may be wrong to be in the middle of the road, but it does not give the driver the right to run over him.
This should apply to train drivers as well. When they see obstruction or someone on the track, they must try to avoid running over it.
Wake up lah. Anyhow hantam.
There is no such 'right' to physically harm a person.
The question is whether you can avoid harming the hapless person -- pre-supposing you are doing anything that is possible to avoid a tragic accident.
To become 'aware' about something and then to act takes between 0.2 and 0.5 seconds. In life-or-death situations it generally comes down to a matter of "luck".
Imagine that, for the average person it takes 0.2-0.5s to respond to the threat of collision -- sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they don't.
Stop with the emotional bullshit lah and fake concern.
Look at the science, and get real!
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