The media won't say this, and neither apparently will the police, so I will.

[reverendjeremiah]

Because no one wants to be seen as insensitive, darling.

Which is ridiculous - a safety reminder could easily be added to the end of condolences without mentioning words like "stupidity."

Im with Summer on this one...

[leo-rcc]

this is a regular railroad crossing in the Netherlands. I dont believe an extra sign will make the urgency of staying behind the beams any more clearer.

Verstuurd van mijn GT-P1000 met Tapatalk

[Doubting Thomas]

I think that's just Darwinism at work weeding out the less intelligent from the gene pool.

Seriously, just let the train pass and get your phone after it's gone. If the phone is laying between the rails, it will be OK while the train rolls over it. If it were laying on the rails, well, no phone is worth your life. I'd just put that right up there with putting a penny on the tracks and letting a train roll over it.

[Minimalist]

Whilst this is certainly tragic, how on earth is it an accident? This young lady was presented with a choice; to risk her life by stupidly (yes, stupidly) going down onto train tracks to rescue a phone,

Chlorine in the gene pool, Adrian.

[frankiej]

This is the crossing 5 minutes away from my house... People have died at this crossing, how? I really don't know...

[Tiberius]

I don't think it happened at a crossing. The article says it happened at the station...and station platforms don't tend to have barriers.

[Welsh cake]

how on earth is it an accident?

All to do with their departmental terminology with regards to health and safety.

The Police can opt to call the event either a "hazard/risk", "near miss", "incident", or an "accident".

Since accident describes a significant event that results in injury or death and/or property damage, its the only appropriate term the government's civil service policies allow them to categorise the fatality as.

[Anomalocaris]

Of course it's an accident. The outcome is by no means overwhelmingly probable, and the participant in question did not undertake the action in question in an attempt to cause the relatively improbable outcome to eventuate. This is the definition of "accident". Accident has nothing to do with rules, or any evaluation of risk and reward that would meet with your approval.

Name me another type of "accident"

[Violet]

It's not like she intended to be hit by a train, and I don't disagree with what she did either. If you can do something yourself: why bother someone else to do it? Such a waste of their time.

At worst, I consider her death the result of bad timing. She should have waited for immediately after a train left... but the reality is that she was probably in a rush. Get a little perspective: people do increasingly dangerous things when they are hurrying. And then an accident occurs.

Until I have the full scoop (which I will probably never have, and neither will you):



I've got my plate full

[Minimalist]

If you can do something yourself

The evidence suggests that she could not.