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Darwin Awards
2006 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Student Dies Jumping Train

2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Friends mourn A&M student killed by train

By APRIL AVISON Eagle Staff Writer

As Texas A&M University students return to class Monday, many will be mourning the loss of a 23-year-old senior killed over the weekend while trying to jump onto a moving train.

Friends of Robert Walker Best on Sunday said his death still does not seem real.

"Walker was a brilliant kid (yet he tried to jump onto a train), probably the most compassionate person I know," said Nic Taunton, the university's student body president.

"This is obviously very tough," Taunton said. "We have a tight-knit group of friends who loved him very much, and we miss him very much. We're praying for his family."

Carol Binzer, Texas A&M's director of student life programs, said she was called to the College Station Police Department around 4 a.m. Saturday, shortly after Best was pronounced dead at the train tracks near George Bush Drive and Wellborn Road (the trains go at 30-40mph at that spot), just a few blocks from the university campus.

"It's never easy, but in this case, it wasn't that he'd had an illness, so there's not the opportunity to say all the things you wanted to say," Binzer said. "It defies the natural order of things. My heart is just broken for his parents and his younger brother."

Best's brother, Thomas Foster Best, is a sophomore business major at A&M.

Police said Walker Best and two male friends - one a student at Blinn College, the other a University of Texas student - were attempting to board the moving train when Best slipped and fell underneath it. Trains go through College Station at about 40 mph, according to Union Pacific officials.

Toxicology reports are pending. Police Lt. Mark Langwell said more information will be released Monday.

Eleven people have been killed in train-related accidents in Texas since January, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Binzer said the youths she spoke to referred to "jumping the trains" as though it were a common practice among young adults.

But Langwell said he's worked for the police department for 24 years and hasn't heard of jumping trains.

"We'll do some checking into it," he said. "Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean it isn't happening."

Best, a fifth-year senior biology major from San Antonio, will be honored at the university's Silver Taps ceremony in October. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Porter Loring Mortuary North in San Antonio. Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the chapel at 2102 North Loop 1604 East, San Antonio. Services were pending late Sunday.

Binzer said students who want to attend the funeral should let their professor or adviser know when Texas A&M classes begin Monday.

"It's not an officially excused absence," Binzer said, "but many of our faculty will be compassionate."

The counselor said she's already notified the dean of students at the University of Texas, because one of Best's friends, who was with him at the time of the accident, is a student there.

"I'll certainly follow up with the four or five students I met at the police station," she said. "This week will be hard, but two or three weeks from now, people may have trouble concentrating or sleeping. They may experience a melancholy."

Because of Best's involvement in student government, and his girlfriend's membership in a sorority, many people will be touched by the loss, Binzer said.

"Everybody that knew them - it's sort of like a ripple in a pond," she said. "And whenever there's a death, it brings up every other death experience we've ever had."

Best's close friends were coping with the tragedy "as well as could be expected," Binzer added.

"It was a little surreal," she said of the atmosphere at the police station early Saturday morning. "It was very quiet. They were exhausted, and the detectives were trying to put the story together, so they were asked not to talk about it too much."

Counseling is offered through the Student Life Center in Cain Hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and a helpline is available after hours. The helpline number appears on the back of student identification cards.

Everyone is praising how smart this kid was. They are praising a person who tried to jump onto a train where they go way to fast where as if he would have gone to the otherside of the campus and walked about 500 ft north along the tracks the trains slow enough to be boarded (not saying that jumping on a train is a bright idea)

Submitted on 09/01/2006

Submitted by: Michael
Reference: The Eagle Monday Aug. 28 2006

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Definitely Toss: Lacks Excellence
Thanks, Michael. We've already gotten this story. Train related accidents are too common and there's nothing spectacular about this one. Freight hopping IS rather common (I knew plenty of people who did), but it is NOT a sport for dilletantes. One hops a freight when it's doing UNDER 10 MPH, NOT when it's barrelling along at 40 mph! Carelessness and bravado are more the culprits than stupidity, though there IS plenty of the latter present here! We'll see what my fellow mods think!


Sheryl said:
Definitely Toss: Other
Thanks for the story, Michael. Lots of submissions on this one. Personally, I feel that it's stupid to try and jump on ANY moving train - the risks are just too high but I don't see the story standing out in any way.


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