children on the tracks

dny123456

Apparently this is an interview question.

You are a supervisor of a rail road. There are two rails, one for the main train traffic and one for safety. If a train comes, you have a lever, which when pulled, switches the track the train travels on.

6 Children playing on the tracks. One on the safety rail, which is not off limits to the public, 5 on the main line, which is off limits. Train is coming. You have in your power to pull your lever and save the 5 children and instead kill the one child. Or you do nothing, allowing the 5 children to be killed but saving the one child.

What should you do?

Vain

dny123456 wrote: »

What should you do?

Have a break... have a Kit Kat

poisonated

Thats an interesting one.Im sure this is not the "correct" answer but...I would save the 5 kids.It probably has to do with following the rules in terms of an interview question.

admiralofthefleet

i heard this before, its some kind of riddle or trick question isnt it?

Fad

Do nothing, 5 Kids (should) get Darwin Awards.

Terry

Get the five kids first, then reverse the train over the other brat.

Captain Darling

Is this a monorail?

dny123456

Captain Darling wrote: »

Is this a monorail?

As long as there's two of them... sure.

thebigredone

Vain wrote: »

Have a break... have a Kit Kat

gold!!



but when the kit kat was finished i'd stop the train and spend about 25 minutes firing stones at all the little hoowers till they fupped off and then i would continue on my journey victorious!

Jimbo

Alert the relevant authorities

eddiehead

Kill the 5 kids, disposing of 5 witnesses would be a pian in the hole tbh

galwayrush

Ring the train driver, let him worry about it.

BaconZombie

What if I pull the level just as the train is at the junction causing it to derail, flip and kill all 6 of the children and everyone on-board in a fiery explosion of DEATH..,?

Vain

Won't somebody please think of the children.

Berty

Tell the interviewer the surely during induction they will tell you the answer which will let them know you ALWAYS do what you are trained to do.

Or open the window and shout at the single child "that track is ghey" and when he runs onto the main track you get 6 bonus points.

kelle

Would the 5 children on the main rail not already be dead from electrocution?

thebigredone

michael jackson will be thinking about the children

easyeason3

Children should not have been on the track to start with. So instead of wondering which lever to pull you should run out & grab them all under one arm, like Arnie, & throw them to safety whilst wearing a tight fitting vest.

Or you could leave them there & take bets on 'survival of the fastest to get off the train track'

Once everything has calmed down you can then kick the sh!it out of them for disrupting your day & possibly derailing a train.

Either way you win

Carsinian Thau

Switch the train to the track with the one child and then run and get them out of the way or yell at them to get out of the way?

auditek923

blow the horn !!!!!!!!!!!!! choo choo

Sharpshooter

dny123456 wrote: »

Apparently this is an interview question.

You are a supervisor of a rail road. There are two rails, one for the main train traffic and one for safety. If a train comes, you have a lever, which when pulled, switches the track the train travels on.

6 Children playing on the tracks. One on the safety rail, which is not off limits to the public, 5 on the main line, which is off limits. Train is coming. You have in your power to pull your lever and save the 5 children and instead kill the one child. Or you do nothing, allowing the 5 children to be killed but saving the one child.

What should you do?

I'm not being funny here but wouldn't the train driver see them in time anyway?
Would the train be coming up to a bend in the track?
I'd have to ask that.

abouttobebanned

That's one sick ass episode of Thomas the Tank Engine right there. Is it on youtube?

dny123456

Sharpshooter wrote: »

I'm not being funny here but wouldn't the train driver see them in time anyway?
Would the train be coming up to a bend in the track?
I'd have to ask that.

The train driver cant slow the train down in time. You are the only one who can save the children... its all down to you. No pressure.

Berty

Proclaim after the death of many children

"It was my first day"

auditek923

auditek923 wrote: »

blow the horn !!!!!!!!!!!!! choo choo

?????

dny123456

auditek923 wrote: »

?????

No you don't have a horn. You have a lever. You could blow that if you like :-)

Rented Mule

Since there are five children on one track you have a better chance of being seen by one of them.

The one child has less of a chance of seeing you.

Aim for the five.

galwayrush

Do nothing, contact Max Clifford.

Berty

Contact the union.

Irish rail workers should not have to put up with this ****.

suckslikeafox

dny123456 wrote: »

Apparently this is an interview question.

You are a supervisor of a rail road. There are two rails, one for the main train traffic and one for safety. If a train comes, you have a lever, which when pulled, switches the track the train travels on.

6 Children playing on the tracks. One on the safety rail, which is not off limits to the public, 5 on the main line, which is off limits. Train is coming. You have in your power to pull your lever and save the 5 children and instead kill the one child. Or you do nothing, allowing the 5 children to be killed but saving the one child.

What should you do?

*looks at watch*...."Thats my lunch, I'm off"

Problem solved.

Armin_Tamzarian

You do nothing.

The one child is playing in an area which isn't out of bounds.
The child should be there, the train shouldn't.

By switching the tracks the rail-man would be killing that child
instead of 5 children begin killed by their own stupidity / ignorance.

Pulling the lever would be the same as diverting the train onto a public road and killing a motorist, it just wouldn't be done.

galwayrush

dny123456 wrote: »

No you don't have a horn. You have a lever. You could blow that if you like :-)

Michael Jackson would have a Horn.:rolleyes:

Sharpshooter

OP, do you actually have the answer?
:pac:

galwayrush

Sharpshooter wrote: »

OP, do you actually have the answer?
:pac:

he's got plenty in the last few minutes.:D

Saibh

There is no right answer!

TheZohanS

I've just asked Robocop, he said to run over the one kid.

Tubberadora

The_Coon wrote: »

You do nothing.

The one child is playing in an area which isn't out of bounds.
The child should be there, the train shouldn't.

By switching the tracks the rail-man would be killing that child
instead of 5 children begin killed by their own stupidity / ignorance.

Pulling the lever would be the same as diverting the train onto a public road and killing a motorist, it just wouldn't be done.

Spot on.

dny123456

Lol... quite a few good ones in there. Some better than that which I'm told is the answer....

The_Coon you get the job.

Although, rented mule had good reasoning I think.

Right answer is do nothing, the 5 kids are in the wrong, the one kid is doing nothing wrong, so shouldn't be killed.

Berty

And the others should be killed.

I love Irish Rail.*






*possibly aware this is not the company who set the question but wishful thinking

anniehoo

So when ye kill the 5 little kids do ya get like "employee of the month" award or a promotion or somethin for a job well done? Probably would in Irish Rail id say:D

*the poor kid left behind after seein all his mates wiped out

Insect Overlord

It's all down to whether you are a proponent of Millsian utilitarianism or the deterministic school of philosphy.

My name is Mud

If this was about an Irish railway company you have a few issues

1. Has the union been consulted about the lever in question?

2. Has the union made enough discussions with management about implementing a recommendation of proper training of lever usage?

3. Has the LRC been invloved in benchmarking the process of the lever movement and training?

4. Are the workers looking for extra cash for doing jobs "outside of their abilities" as sanctioned by the social partners, in conjunction with the labour relations committee, with backup from the union, which obviously has been benchmarked?

etc

biko

Kill whoever is from Mayo

994

I would detach the rear carriage, then make the turn, killing the 1 child. The momentum of the rear carriage would then make it run over the other 5.

mikemac

The_Coon wrote: »

You do nothing.

The one child is playing in an area which isn't out of bounds.
The child should be there, the train shouldn't.

By switching the tracks the rail-man would be killing that child
instead of 5 children begin killed by their own stupidity / ignorance.

Pulling the lever would be the same as diverting the train onto a public road and killing a motorist, it just wouldn't be done.

This man speaks the truth!

robinph

Kill whoever it is that decided that a "saftey rail" designed for use in emergencies should have different rules about it being out of bounds than the main rail.

tony1kenobi

dny123456 wrote: »

Apparently this is an interview question.

You are a supervisor of a rail road. There are two rails, one for the main train traffic and one for safety. If a train comes, you have a lever, which when pulled, switches the track the train travels on.

6 Children playing on the tracks. One on the safety rail, which is not off limits to the public, 5 on the main line, which is off limits. Train is coming. You have in your power to pull your lever and save the 5 children and instead kill the one child. Or you do nothing, allowing the 5 children to be killed but saving the one child.

What should you do?

The answer is "I don't feel comfortable with the prospect of working for a company that fantasizes about killing children. With that in mind I am going to report this entire incident to the authorities and hope upon hope you are exposed for the baby killers you so obviously wish you were....and stick your job up your hole.....I don't want to work in xtravision anyway"

IRISH RAIL

the real answer is Id be playing with my other lever and have the monitor on free porn channell so I wouldnt notice 5 muppet kids. the driver would come around the corner once seeing them accelerate as hard as possible to ensure time off ( 3 months average for a one under ) so 5 is a jackpot. the one smart kid would be spending the rest of his life in counselling and probably be dead from the fire he would start as a "cry for help" arsonistic bastard. so it wouldnt really matter wheter it was my lever of the junctions lever I was pulling someones dying and someones getting time off paid (everyones a winner!!!!!!! )

Victor

1. There is no right answer. Its a question to see how you react to a difficult situation. It you can change the track without a derailment the train isn't going so fast that the driver or children can't react.

2. The_Coon makes some good points.

3. What will the training say?

4. You stay the course - they 5 kids just might realise that they are in the wrong and be on the look out. There are also more of them that might see. If you switch the train to the "safety" track they might still expect it to be on the "dangerous" main track and move to the safety track.

5. Do you want 5 children or 1 child in counselling for the rest of their lives?

SoupyNorman

What I find fascinating is that nobody has suggested stopping the train.

If there has been enough time to establish that there is children on the tracks and whats more the number of them then there should be plenty of time for the train to stop.

Also, trains slow down when approaching switching points no?, so the train should stop more quicklyier!

Victor

SoupyNorman wrote: »

What I find fascinating is that nobody has suggested stopping the train.

We read the thread which says we can only change what track the train is on. I know, we cheated.