Duxford Girl

So, I was sitting at my desk the other night listening to the RTC ahead of me deal with something all operational railroaders have to cope with at least once or twice in their career; the trackside suicide They say that suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness and no where is this more present than when someone decides to leap in front of a freight train.

First off, there are the Running Trades. The engineer and conductor get the short end of the stick on this one. Imagine it, there you are, nearly done your shift and someone leaps in front of your train. There’s nothing you can do but hit the breaks and call the RTC. Worse yet, some people are really resolved about ending their lives and they simply lay down on the tracks and wait. At that point, the engineman hits the breaks, calls the RTC and waits for the inevitable. If you’re the unlucky RTC on the other end you get to listen to the crew approaching the moment when they have unwittingly ended someone’s life. It sucks, that’s all there is to it.

At that point, at least two people have been directly affected by the decision of the jumper. It starts a chain reaction down the line. Emergency services and the CP Police have to be called. The Crew Dispatcher has to get the crew in a cab as soon as possible and a new crew has to be called to relieve the train. The train is likely on the main line at this point and must be left there while the police complete their investigation and emergency services finish with their scene. This will stop traffic on either side of the scene until it is cleared. Now customers of the company are affected because it may delay their shipments.

RTCs, Managers and Operation Planners now all have to adjust line-ups and come up with back-up plans depending on how long the track will be tied up; crisis staff will be alerted for the running trades and anyone else dealing with the scene on the CP side that may need counseling to cope with the situation. I can make a relatively educated guess that emergency services will also be alerting their crisis staff for their employees.

The above is all happening within the first stages of the event. Afterwards, legal departments, PR and upper-management all have to be reported to in writing. The engine is sent to one of the diesel shops in the country and cleaned in such a way as to make sure that all remains are sent to the proper place for burial.

When all is said and done, the jumper has affected the lives of several people as well as several organizations. Congratulations jumper, I guess if your goal was to get back at the world for all its injustices you’ve (at the very least) inconvenienced as many people as possible.

Last year, shortly after I had finished my training, I was working a utility shift. One of my classmates from RTC class was working a desk that we both know and had a jumper in front of one of his trains. My manager asked me to go over and field the phones while the other RTC dealt with the radio. After the incident was clearing, our RTC manager stopped by to see how we were feeling about what had just happened. I looked at my co-worker and told him if he got four more he’d get to be an ace; we high-fived and continued working. I think our manager was a little disturbed but he didn’t know he was dealing with a fire-fighter’s kid and a cop’s kid. I think you tend to inherit a certain sick sense of humour when you grow up in an emergency services family.

Everyone who works the job is affected differently by the occurrence of a suicide. In case you haven’t guessed, it pisses me off even when I’m just listening to it. Note to any potential railway jumpers out there: leave me out of it, I’ve got my own messed-up life to deal with.