A Man About to Die on the New York Post Cover Today

[burnin_vernon]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

How did someone take a photo of him in that spot and there is no one around trying to pull him out of the way??

Originally Posted by mrgreen

Because it's America.

What a dumb thing to say.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Locke

I cant speak for New York, but I'm pretty shocked that it happens at all.

These are trains. They run on tracks. Dont go on the tracks, those are for the trains, you'll have a bad time. Problem solved.

Now this guy was unfortunate as some psycho shoved him onto the tracks right as a train was coming. There may have been a way for him to save his life, some other direction or rolling under a cutout, who knows, but panic is certainly understandable in his position.

Even the blackout drunk dont pass out on train tracks. Its almost exclusively either a tragic accident or a willful move.

I'm not talking about accidents, I'm talking about mentally unstable people going crazy and pushing others off the ledge. When you have 8 million people packed into a small area, that's a lot of close contact and opportunity for someone to snap. I've seen my fair share of whackos in the city, being it just weird people or homeless people with clear mental issues...there are a ton of opportunities to do some serious damage to others.

[Hack&Lube]

Some transit systems put ads on the glass walls and doors to help pay for them. Yes in New York it would be expensive to retrofit every platform but it's not impossible and they have looked at it in the past.

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-...way-platforms/

[normtwofinger]

Hong Kong has glass wall and doors. I'm surprised this isn't mandatory for subways these days.

Edit:

[JonDuke]

I didn't read this whole thread, but....

Wouldn't the multiple flashes have hampered the situation by temporarily blinding the driver and making it harder to see there was someone on the tracks?

[Ped]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

I didn't read this whole thread, but....

Wouldn't the multiple flashes have hampered the situation by temporarily blinding the driver and making it harder to see there was someone on the tracks?

Depends if you believe the Post's CYA story that this actually happened.

Luckily for the Post, one of those flashes juuuuuuust happened to be the picture they put on the front page.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Ped

Depends if you believe the Post's CYA story that this actually happened.

Luckily for the Post, one of those flashes happened to be the picture they put on the front page.

I don't believe it for a second. It was more likely "holy **** I've got to get a picture of this life and death situation. "Hey bosses, you'll never believe the shot I got for you!"

Maybe he wasn't initially intending to take a picture of someone about to die, but I'm willing to bet he saw something dramatic and his freelance photographer instinct was to snap photos.

Then the New York post likely decided that they'd need a non morbid reason for why the photo was taken, and went "You were trying to warn the train conductor, and got a perfectly centered shot of the guy trying to climb up the platform".

[valo403]

They've made an arrest

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.1213300

[FanIn80]

Come on guys, don't rip on the New York Post too badly. Their level of journalistic integrity is right up there with Sportsnet.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by polak

As an aside, C-Trains not being standarized is a very stupid, costly practice. The price of carrying parts for 3 different types of trains and training mechanics and drivers for all of them is significant.

Way off topic here, but what alternative would you propose? The SD160s were not available when the LRT started in Calgary, and the U2 cars weren't available when the purchase of new cars started ~10 years ago. Are you suggesting that the entire fleet should be replaced every time we need to order a few more cars? That in the early 2000s, CT should have purchased 75 extra new cars just so that the fleet could be standardized, than CT should have purchased 140 new cars a couple of years ago so that the fleet could be standardized, despite half the cars in the fleet being less than 10 years old, and that CT should be looking at purchasing 170+ extra new cars now with the new order they will be making early in the new year, despite having 60-70 cars that are less than 5 years old?

(By the way, CT has 4 different types of LRVs, not three. There are 2 AC powered U2 cars in the fleet that usually get used as an unpowered middle car inbetween two SD160s. Next year, CT will be making an order that will almost certainly mean that Calgary will have 5 different types of LRVs, since it's quite unlikely that they will order more of the same kind as the last batch. We will likely than be served by two different manufacturer names.

[polak]

Having not seen the numbers and lacking any real knowledge on the subject it's hard to comment but in theory, you sell the old fleet either as one package or to multiple municipalties, you replace the entire fleet from one vendor, which inturn should lead to a cheaper price per car and then you stick with one type until they are ready to be replaced, adding cars from the same type or model as needed.

This may cost a little more then utilizing cars that are 3 or 4 generations old but the benefits would definitely be there.

Unless you're saying that manufacturers replace their cars with new, uncompatitible models (ex. radical differences like door positions) on a very frequent basis, which would suprise me but if thats the case then I guess you're right, it's not on an option.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by polak

Having not seen the numbers and lacking any real knowledge on the subject it's hard to comment but in theory, you sell the old fleet either as one package or to multiple municipalties, you replace the entire fleet from one vendor, which inturn should lead to a cheaper price per car and then you stick with one type until they are ready to be replaced, adding cars from the same type or model as needed.

This may cost a little more then utilizing cars that are 3 or 4 generations old but the benefits would definitely be there.

Unless you're saying that manufacturers replace their cars with new, uncompatitible models (ex. radical differences like door positions) on a very frequent basis, which would suprise me but if thats the case then I guess you're right, it's not on an option.

Would you buy a new 2013 Honda Accord if they hadn't updated the model since 2002? Neither would transportation authorities consider buying old technology for extended periods of time.

The costs to have multiple parts supplies and training drivers for multiple different models is FAR less than replacing entire fleets - and that's why no city of any size would ever do anything like that. You replace cars as they wear out, and buy more when you need more.

[polak]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Would you buy a new 2013 Honda Accord if they hadn't updated the model since 2002? Neither would transportation authorities consider buying old technology for extended periods of time.

Airlines don't replace their fleets with drastically different planes every 5 years. They buy the same model to ensure that everything stays compatible. Yes, the technology may be a little different on the inside, but you make sure that the basics are all the same. This makes life a lot easier as you can keep everything else the same and allows for you to adopt new auxiliary technologies (Hey, like protective glass railings) and still keep the whole fleet compatible.


I'm not saying replace the fleet every time a car breaks or you need to add capacity. I'm saying replace the car with something that is similar to what you currently have. If some amazing new technology comes out that would be uncompatible with the current fleet, then you weigh the benefits of the tech versus the cost of upgrading the entire fleet.

[You Need a Thneed]

response in public transit thread.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So I take it Polak is volunteering to have his taxes increase about 90,000% to help pay for all the new cars we have to buy every time we have a new car design? And where exactly do you sell an old fleet of commuter trains? Municipalities aren't exactly in the market for used infrastructure goods.

[ken0042]

I flipped a coin in my head, it came up tails. We will keep the discussion about Calgary Transit's fleet out of this thread and leave it in the CT thread.

[Domoic]

Good Samaritan?

Why didn’t people help him?

Perhaps there is more to this than the first report...

The suspect...told cops he and Han “bumped into each and started arguing before getting to the turnstiles” and then “continued the confrontation” on the platform, sources said

His wife...said she and her husband had argued the day he died and that her husband was “drunk” and angry when he headed into Manhattan.

Afterward, authorities found a bottle of vodka on Han, a former Laundromat worker who was unemployed at the time of his death.

Witnesses said that, as the victim and his killer argued, straphangers inched away.

Then, just as a loudspeaker announced the incoming train, Han was “launched” onto the tracks, a witness said.