Woman dies in freak accident in Raheny train station

Stheno

Terribly sad story, woman fell over on the platform in Raheny, got run over by a train which couldn't stop, and died of her injuries.

Can't imagine what the passengers waiting/on the train, and the poor driver are going through.

RIP to the lady, and thoughts to the witnesses

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/woman-killed-by-train-after-falling-onto-track-1.1897139

A woman has died after being struck by a train when she fell onto the tracks at Raheny Dart station in Dublin this afternoon.

The woman in her mid-50s accidentally fell onto the track as she was waiting for the northbound Dart at about 1.45pm, Irish Rail said in a statement.

The incident happened as the Pearse to Drogheda commuter train, which does not stop at Raheny, was approaching.

It was not possible to stop the train before it struck the woman, despite the emergency brakes being applied by the driver and a woman on the southbound platform alerting the driver, Irish Rail said.

The Singing Beard

RIP, I hope no one is low enough to troll or joke on this topic.

miss no stars

Oh no, I heard this earlier on the news but thought it said she was in a critical condition. Awful. RIP.

Stheno

miss no stars wrote: »

Oh no, I heard this earlier on the news but thought it said she was in a critical condition. Awful. RIP.

Yeah, very sadly she died in hospital after being treated on scene.

Awful imo, someone just going about their day has an unfortunate accident and dies.

God love her family as well.

pablomakaveli

Having worked in a railway station i cannot stress how dangerous an enviroment they can be. Always stay well back from the edge of the platform when the train comes in.

Jamie2k9

Not making any reference to this case but people do not care about the yellow line and raised bumps towards the edge of the all platforms. They are there for a reason.

miss no stars

Stheno wrote: »

Yeah, very sadly she died in hospital after being treated on scene.

Awful imo, someone just going about their day has an unfortunate accident and dies.

God love her family as well.

And the driver

xzanti

Awful RIP poor lady

Tail Docker

Strawwwbreeezz wrote: »

RIP, I hope no one is low enough to troll or joke on this topic.

That's why I'm saying nothing, except RIP.

Stheno

miss no stars wrote: »

And the driver

I always feel for the driver in these circumstances, be it suicide or accident.

How awful must it be to know you can't do anything in time to prevent someone suffering serious injury/death.

MY OH has a friend who is a driver who suffered this twice and was severely affected by it.

steamengine

So sad - RIP

AndonHandon

Oh jesus, it is an awful tragedy. That poor woman and her family, such an unnecessary thing to happen.

sweetie

why can't there be a rail and sliding gates at these platforms? RIP

loh_oro

Horrific , RIP

Jimoslimos

sweetie wrote: »

why can't there be a rail and sliding gates at these platforms? RIP

Not being callous but money is sadly the main reason.

Some stations on the Underground in London (Jubilee Line IIRC) do have full glass walls and automatic doors but are very expensive.

cloud493

Thats really terrible, RIP. At a lot of the stations in Dublin theres a large gap between the platform and the train door, they should really get it sorted.

Take Your Pants Off

RIP, Hope her family members are okay and wish they go through this.

But this qs. has been bugging me since I was little, why can trains not stop, as in how cars stop and such, is there no brake in a train that can make it stop.
I know this incident was sudden but what about if the train driver saw a person miles ahead on the track, could he stop the train ?

srsly78

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

RIP, Hope her family members are okay and wish they go through this.

But this qs. has been bugging me since I was little, why can trains not stop, as in how cars stop and such, is there no brake in a train that can make it stop.
I know this incident was sudden but what about if the train driver saw a person miles ahead on the track, could he stop the train ?

Depends on momentum. Cars can't instantly stop either. Trains have huge momentum. Even then, if you were to somehow instantly stop a train this would be the same as a crash and probably kill loads of passengers.

miss no stars

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

RIP, Hope her family members are okay and wish they go through this.

But this qs. has been bugging me since I was little, why can trains not stop, as in how cars stop and such, is there no brake in a train that can make it stop.
I know this incident was sudden but what about if the train driver saw a person miles ahead on the track, could he stop the train ?

They can and do stop. There wasn't enough time in this case. The train was traveling at fairly high speed through the station and has enormous mass, so the momentum is incomparable to that of a passenger car.

Take Your Pants Off

srsly78 wrote: »

Depends on momentum. Cars can't instantly stop either. Trains have huge momentum. Even then, if you were to somehow instantly stop a train this would be the same as a crash and probably kill loads of passengers.

Ah now cars can stop fair fast to be honest.
Have you ever seen spider-man 2 when the train was about to fall off, it had a good few distance before the track finished so it should had been stopped.

Take Your Pants Off

miss no stars wrote: »

They can and do stop. There wasn't enough time in this case. The train was traveling at fairly high speed through the station and has enormous mass, so the momentum is incomparable to that of a passenger car.

But realistically they can't stop. They try to stop but I guess its no use. Depending the factors you've given
I have not heard yet a story of a person that survived a train incident.

miss no stars

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

But realistically they can't stop. I have not heard yet a story of a person that survived a train incident.

They can stop. Their stopping distance is greater. This is probably better suited to the physics or eng forum.

josip

Similar thing happened in Dun Laoghaire a couple of years ago.
But I think in that case the girl fell between the tracks and the side and survived albeit with severe injuries to her hands.
Driving a train must be very stressful.

Take Your Pants Off

miss no stars wrote: »

They can stop. Their stopping distance is greater. This is probably better suited to the physics or eng forum.

Yes this thing really went off topic.

HeidiHeidi

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

But realistically they can't stop. They try to stop but I guess its no use. Depending the factors you've given
I have not heard yet a story of a person that survived a train incident.

They do stop

The stopping distance depends on the combination of speed and weight/mass so trains will take a LOT longer to stop than a car, especially when they're up to full speed which this train would have been.

Same as a fully-laden truck will take a lot longer to stop than a small car.

RIP that poor lady and sympathies to her family and the poor driver.

Jimoslimos

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

They do stop

The stopping distance depends on the combination of speed and weight/mass so trains will take a LOT longer to stop than a car, especially when they're up to full speed which this train would have been.

Same as a fully-laden truck will take a lot longer to stop than a small car.

RIP that poor lady and sympathies to her family and the poor driver.

Steel on steel (and a tiny surface area) generates far less friction than large rubber tyres on tarmac - it's also the reason why trains are generally useless in dealing with gradients. But as was said before probably a matter for Eng & Phys forums, anyway the point being the driver should be held completely blameless in these cases.

The train wouldn't have been up to full speed, there are restrictions on that part of the line since it is far too busy with DARTs, commuter and Belfast Enterprise trains all sharing it, but it would have been travelling at a fair speed. A third and ideally a fourth line (in the middle) should have been constructed to take express and Northern commuter trains from Connolly to Howth Junction rather than wasting money on extending the DART to Malahide (parish pump politics from Nora Owen at the time)

MS.ing

sweetie wrote: »

why can't there be a rail and sliding gates at these platforms? RIP

because they have yellow lines if you lie down with your feet behind the yellow line and your head facing the tracks it wont be possible for you to fall onto the tracks. its set at that exact distance for a reason, you cant die from falling on the tracks (too much of your weight will be on the ground so you will balance)

shruikan2553

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

RIP, Hope her family members are okay and wish they go through this.

But this qs. has been bugging me since I was little, why can trains not stop, as in how cars stop and such, is there no brake in a train that can make it stop.
I know this incident was sudden but what about if the train driver saw a person miles ahead on the track, could he stop the train ?

A train stopping suddenly is more like a lorry with its trailer in that when it stops suddenly the back will skid and in the case of a train it means derailment which results in far more damage and danger to people.

Egginacup

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Not making any reference to this case but people do not care about the yellow line and raised bumps towards the edge of the all platforms. They are there for a reason.

Oh FFS, the woman fell to her death....and there's always someone like you looking to apportion blame. If someone was struck by lightning you'd probably blame them for not wearing the right shoes or being dumb enough to be out in a storm, Forget that they were trying to get home before getting drenched.

The raised bumps are for blind people, in case you didn't know.

Ambersky

Getting the train to stop is one issue and preventing people, especially people with a sight loss from falling onto the tracks is quite another problem.
The woman who fell to her death was blind.
She had to cope with her sight loss for a very long time so any exercise I might suggest to simulate the experience is not exactly like a blind person experiences it but try this - Stand on a train platform well back from the tracks and close your eyes. Hold an umbrella or a stick if you want to and push that in front, keeping it on the ground at all times. Now walk towards the tracks. Just imagine that, but try it in real life if you get a chance, only if you are with someone standing right beside you watching out for you.

Blind people usually have some training on how to locate the edge of the platform but conditions change, it gets noisy, someone is shouting, someone bumped into them, they are thinking about something someone said just before they left home, there is a crowd of people pushing, all these things can distract you and if you get even a bit disorientated on a train platform you can be in serious trouble.

A lot of people think that if you can see textured paving you can feel it and surprisingly thats not always true. If the textures dont stand up enough they arent so easy to feel, rounded dots are easier to feel than stripes or flat topped dots and the tiles need to be more than one stride deep to give a person even half a chance of stopping.
Yep! the raised bumps are there at the edge of the platform clearly visible to anyone who can see but sometimes they are only one tile wide and you could probably step over that one tile in a single stride, or you may step on the tile and it may take you a second or two to register that Woops! that was a tile and your feet are still going and your down on the tracks.

It is problematic that textured paving isnt consistent across the city and country. If you look around the Luas platforms, road crossings, car parks etc you will see striped textured paving, dotted textured paving of various heights going in several directions, etc etc there isnt any consistency.
Plus the people who put the paving down dont always know what its for or how to lay it down so blind people can find it or use it.

A lot of people have sight loss and its not always obvious. Some people can see during the day but in darkened conditions they loose their sight, a lot of older people have cataracts or blurred vision, some people see really well in spots or through a tunnel but they are totally blind across the other areas of their vision and may miss steps, so, keep an eye out for people who seem to be moving with some uncertainty towards trains, busses and across roads.

There are however a few things Id like to suggest ordinary people can do right now because these problems are probably not going to be sorted out any time soon and Im afraid more accidents like this could happen.
Not all people with a sight loss need help but remember to USE YOUR VOICE if you are unsure, and ask someone if they need help or give a warning if you think they might need it. Stand next to the person and ask "Do you need any help?" and then its grand if they dont need help but ask them "Would you like to take me by the arm" instead of grabbing onto them if they say they would like help.

You can often see by the way someone is moving if they need help or not. Someone walking using a confident stride usually doesnt need help and if there are audible street crossings they can probably use those without sighted assistance. Confidence can at times be a bad thing if you are unaware that you are walking towards danger so dont be embarrased to shout out a warning "Hey, Stop, theres a hole in the path just in front of you, Ill go over and guide you around it if you want" is much more useful than an inaudible gasp or a "Be careful there".
Ive seen people stand there speechless as a blind person walks towards them and walks into them. All you need to do is say "Hi there" and the person will know you are there but you do have to talk.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give, oh an please stop parking on footpaths that sometimes puts blind people and other footpath users out on the road where we have to worry about just how long it takes for a car to suddenly stop.

SimonTemplar

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

Ah now cars can stop fair fast to be honest.
Have you ever seen spider-man 2 when the train was about to fall off, it had a good few distance before the track finished so it should had been stopped.

I know what you're saying but I don't think Spider-man should be used as an example of how physics works.

Papaya148

Trains stations have always scared the sh1t out of me, at some stops on the tube in London they have plastic barriers for protection, wish all stops had them.

Thanks for that post, ambersky. Very informative and hopefully it will make us all more aware of people around us.