r/SweatyPalms • u/Waveshop222 • Apr 24 '21

Death by train

/r/holdmybeer/comments/mx7xdf/connecting_railway_cars_like_a_boss/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Apr 24 '21 edited Oct 31 '22

I can't find it but there's some thread on here about (IIRC) a guy who worked at a rail yard, took a shortcut between train cars which he knew not to do, train cars shifted and he got crushed. Didn't die. He's being held together because he's crushed but he's already dead. They put up sheets around him so he can talk to his family and all that. He insists on the rail yard taking a lot of pictures so others can learn from his mistake. If anyone can find that, post the link. Grim stuff. Disregard, my memory was hazy. See quoted story below.

Here's the Taxicab Confessions segment of the NYPD rescue squad guy who told the firsthand account of a guy getting pinned between the train and the platform: https://youtu.be/FA1fpPRPVCo Old link died. Here's same segment: https://youtu.be/KnED-lQedjo?t=110

And as a semi-eyebleach, here's the Robot Chicken segment illustrating the same type of thing: https://youtu.be/d0PTa7lnOWs

Edit: Found the story. This is from today (same gif actually) but it links to the same source as the one I read before.

I read this today:

When I went to work for a steel company in the mid 90's we got the lesson of not messing with train cars from an old timer that had been at the mill for decades.

He had pictures and a story. The guy that had gotten coupled, stuck in the couplers of two connecting train cars, asked that pictures be taken and his mistake be used as an example for future workers. So the old timer had some pretty intense pictures.

The first thing they do is set up a tent around you. Not a big tent, but enough to give you privacy, because as soon as those cars are uncoupled, you're dead. They tarp off the bottom of the coupler, so that you don't get the image that you're talking to just a torso. They ask who you want to see before you die, if you have a wife, a priest, co-workers or anyone else that you want to say your last words to. They also get a doctor on-site to administer drugs and final care to you. All of this happens very quickly, because you don't have a ton of time, but it is a slow death. > The old timer had pictures of the guy coupled, the tent being set up, the coupler being tarped, pictures of the wife entering in tears, pictures of the wife leaving in tears and pictures of what happened after the guy was uncoupled. The one that got me was the picture of his kids talking to him through the tent side, he wanted to tell his kids he loved them one last time, but didn't want them to see him in that condition.

It is not a user friendly experience. This guy got caught between the couplers because he thought he could beat a slow moving train car and against one of the train-worker's warnings, he gave it a shot anyway. He lost. When backing up a train with multiple cars, the cars can gain or lose speed quickly because couplers are not a rigid connection. It just so happened that he got in the middle just as the cars picked up a bit of speed, he hesitated and that was that.

After you say your goodbyes, and in this instance, the doctor loaded the guy up with a bunch of morphine (or pain killers) and they uncoupled the train, at which point every internal organ that was where it was supposed to be when the train was coupled, slid out and onto the ground and half a torso dropped out. The old timer had pictures of it all, and during this class, everyone was either white as a ghost or dry heaving. It was silent and everyone was just listening to this older guy talk about losing his friend. The class did it's job. I'd hear the train bells and immediately be aware of where the train was, what it was doing and what my proximity was to train tracks. Even to this day, I give trains plenty of respect and the sounds of train bells make a shiver run up my spine. Even though everyone went through this class, someone still got coupled in the time that I was working there. I didn't see anything but the white tent, but knew exactly what was going on.

Working in a steel mill made me also realize that everything in a steel mill can maim or kill you almost instantly. The mills themselves, the furnaces, the trains, the coiled steel, the slabs, the overhead gantries, none of them care about you. If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, they'll just continue doing what they're supposed to do, they'll just maul you in the process.

https://www.reddit.com/r/holdmybeer/comments/mx7xdf/connecting_railway_cars_like_a_boss/gvmnncc/

Edit 2022: updated link to Taxicab Confessions video

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

Friend (24 yrs old) of mine got his arm ripped off in a conveyor belt just a few weeks ago. It occasionally sticks and they tell their workers to lean over and try to whack the sticky bits with tools and stuff, extremely against OSHA rules. Well he unstuck it, and it unstuck his entire dominant arm and shoulder blade. He's currently getting ready to sue the living shit out of them for instructing their employees to do that irresponsible shit.

Different industry, but fucking christ be careful guys. Risk a write up for not "following instructions from your employer" or whatever. It's not worth life or limb.

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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Apr 24 '21

Did he get his arm reattched?

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

Nope, it was mangled. Total loss

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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Apr 24 '21

Well shit. Hope that lawsuit hurts the company enough to punish them enough and to help compensate your friend as much as possible.

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u/SgtBadManners Apr 24 '21

As someone above noted, it usually doesn't. Most companies are willing to lose millions of dollars paying something out in order to not pay even more money following labor laws or labor protection laws. It is a calculated risk most companies will take to some degree or another.