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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!

Music + Trains = Bad Mix

2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Darwin says, "Great write-up!"
Added to the story, What's That Sound?
A demise by train is almost too common for Darwin Award merit. Yet, some people still forget the three most important rules about trains: 1) Trains cannot be stopped easily. 2) Trains cannot swerve. 3) And most important - in any confrontation with a train, the train will always win. Forgetting these rules, an unnamed 20-year old man was walking down the railroad tracks in Comstock Township (near Kalamazoo) Michigan. This in of itself in not even close to Darwin stupidity. Trains are loud and noisy and usually announce their approach from quite a distance, allowing anyone in their path ample time to clear out of the way. However, our Darwin contender decided to up the odds in the train's favor by wearing a pair of headphones with the music turned up quite loud (louder than the train horn apparently). It wasn't mentioned what song he was listening to, but I'm guessing it was "Don't Look Back" by Boston. Not looking back sealed his fate. Despite three or four loud blasts of the horn by the train engineer, our unnamed Darwin contender kept strolling along between the rails in musical bliss until being removed from the gene pool courtesy of Amtrak.

Amtrak train hits, kills pedestrian -- Friday, November 03, 2006 A 20-year-old man walking on tracks in Comstock Township was killed by a passenger train late Friday morning. An Amtrak engineer said he sounded a horn three or four times before his train hit and killed a man walking on railroad tracks east of Kalamazoo on Friday, police said. The 20-year-old from Kalamazoo was walking west near East Michigan Avenue and South 26th Street in Comstock Township when he was struck at 10:12 a.m., according to the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department. The man, whose name was withheld while authorities attempted to notify family, was wearing headphones when he was hit, said Sgt. Dan Frever. The engineer attempted to stop the train, which was going about 35 mph when it struck the man, Frever said. Media Reference.

Submitted on 11/06/2006

Submitted by: John V
Reference: Kalmazoo Gazette

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

Great? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Awful?
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James said:
Neutral: For Darwin's Eyes
Thanks, John! Train-related accidents are pretty hit-or-miss these days (no pun intended, of course)! Despite your first-class write-up, this particular genre of train mishap (where the victim is wearing headphones) is already pretty well documented in our archives. I am torn on this based on your write-up, so rather than just write it off as "too common" I will let Darwin decide!

Graham said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Despite the fact that we have numerous such events on record, this one is interesting inasmuch as gross stupidity was involved. Walking on train tracks whilst wearing a Walkman is deserving of a DA in my opinion.

Jorge said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Good and brief write up!

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