When reading about the Baytown teens who crashed into a train, my first reaction was "shouldn't have disobeyed their parents." My second reaction was it could have been anyone...from my understanding it was at night, in a wooded area with no lights, no flashing crossing signals, how could a train block the road? That's a death trap. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4896366.html RIP Imagine being the driver/leader...if he survives he will not only have this on his conscience but could also be tried as an adult and face prison time.
I remember reading an article about a train conductor started a support group for fellow conductors who had hit people. Apparently, this happens pretty often, particularly with suicides, and it really traumatizes the conductors though it's not fault of theirs. An Amtrak train I was on once stopped in the middle of no where to pick up another train full of passengers after their train hit a guy... it was pretty weird.
Yea...because we all grew up doing everything are parents ordered us to do. That's the perfect parent/child relationship world we all live in. Kids never disobey their parents. That is unimaginable. It seems that most parents forget what it is like to be a teen. They never did anything bad when they were teens. It's only this current generation of teens. Their the ones! Many more incidents of joy riding end peacefully. The kids drive around...the kids go home. This one was different because the bad kids who led the group decided to steal the car and then they just happen to slam into a train when trying to jump the railroad tracks. You could say a crime was paid back in kind with a terrible accident. The kid who thinks he is invincible and can get away with so many things didn't get away with jumping the railroad crossing but did get away with stealing two cars. Eventually, the reality that you are not an invincible teen who can get away with anything is going to catch up with you. It just so happens all the groupie friends he talked into coming along paid the price as well.
Well, it helps if you're not trying to "catch some air" over the railroad tracks in a stolen car like these kids were. Most people actually slow down when they see railroad tracks, whether they're lit up or not. They don't try to "catch some air." I feel bad for everyone involved, but today's story is the first I've seen from the Chronic that actually said more than one tiny little blurb about the fact that the kids stole the car. The other articles seemed to imply that this was just kids being kids and it was all the railroad's fault that this happened. Usually, when you steal a car and go speeding around town at 4 in the morning, bad things happen.