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Re: Just Another (Different) Thought
Author: smitty195
Date: 11-06-2009 - 13:02
Gary Hunter Wrote:
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> Can you give me a sensible argument why it should
> take a sign to indicate the danger of occupying an
> active and busy railroad track?
Well, to be perfectly honest, before I got into law enforcement and before I got into the train hobby, I never knew anything about trespassing. I, like most non-railfans, just used common sense before walking across the RR tracks. Look left, look right, and walk across. Trespassing wasn't anywhere in the realm of my thinking back them. I totally understand how people can routinely walk across the tracks as a short-cut without giving it a second thought. How many of us as kids played on or around the tracks with no problems? Seriously. I used to do it all the time (in the late 70's). Nobody ever said anything, and there weren't any signs. Come to think of it, I used to ride in cars without air bags. Sometimes, I wouldn't even have my seat belt on and would be bouncing up and down in the back seat playing around. I understand that as railfans, we tend to know "stuff" that others don't know. And I agree that ignorance of the law is not in itself an excuse. I'm just saying.....there is a world of people out there who know nothing about trains, and I used to be one of them.
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> Can you give me a sensible argument why it should
> take a sign to indicate the danger of occupying an
> active and busy railroad track?
Well, to be perfectly honest, before I got into law enforcement and before I got into the train hobby, I never knew anything about trespassing. I, like most non-railfans, just used common sense before walking across the RR tracks. Look left, look right, and walk across. Trespassing wasn't anywhere in the realm of my thinking back them. I totally understand how people can routinely walk across the tracks as a short-cut without giving it a second thought. How many of us as kids played on or around the tracks with no problems? Seriously. I used to do it all the time (in the late 70's). Nobody ever said anything, and there weren't any signs. Come to think of it, I used to ride in cars without air bags. Sometimes, I wouldn't even have my seat belt on and would be bouncing up and down in the back seat playing around. I understand that as railfans, we tend to know "stuff" that others don't know. And I agree that ignorance of the law is not in itself an excuse. I'm just saying.....there is a world of people out there who know nothing about trains, and I used to be one of them.
