Tragic start to a vacation
 

We just got back from our first cruise. It went from New York to Canada with stops in St John, New Bruncwick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. We took Amtrak on 7/30/10 to Philadelphia and up into Manhattan. Since our cruise left on 7/31/10, a Saturday, I wanted to make sure we were up in the city the day before so we wouldn't miss the ship. We had plans to eat dinner in Little Italy and then see Promises, Promises.

Amtrak is a very convenient and comfortable way to travel into New York. I have taken the train many times over the past twenty years. This was the first time I ever heard of anything like this happening.

We were on our way into Philadelphia and the train jostled. It felt like someone threw rocks at the side of our train. About a mile or so later the train stopped. We found out that someone jumped off of a platform that the train passed by but didn't stop at. The police and the coroner came and investigated what happened. They took all of the names of the people on the train. A man that was sitting near us asked if he could get off the train and take a cab to his destination but we were all told that we were not allowed to exit the train since the police were still doing their investigation.

We were only delayed for about two hours and then they had another train come up along side ours. The Amtrak staff helped everyone transfer to the new train and we went onto Philadelphia and then to NYC. The original train stayed there for a while longer. It certainly wasn't something that I ever thought would happen and it just breaks my heart thinking about that poor person and their family. Has anyone else ever heard of this happening?

Well, not on Amtrak, but unfortunately, suicides on the tracks is not an uncommon occurrence for Cal-train (the commuter train south of San Francisco). It happened to the train my husband was on the very first time he took the train when we first moved here 24 years ago. I'm very sorry for the person and his family and friends, but I hope it didn't seriously impact your vacation.

Just to make sure I understand, he jumped in front of your train? That certainly is tragic. Like you, I feel very sad for the family. But I'm not quite sure I understand why the names of people on the train were taken. I'm guessing that, with the possible exception of the engineer, no one actually saw it happen?

Not to be cold about that very tragic situation, as I'm sure something like that had to put a bit of a damper on things, but I hope the rest of your vacation went well.

Since we purposefully went up the day before, it didn't affect the cruise. We called and cancelled our Little Italy dinner reservation in NYC and ended up eating on restaurant row. I remembered the name of a place we went to before and just walked in. The whole experience shook us up. When we got onto the cruise and started our activities there, we were able to enjoy ourselves. I still think about the person and can't believe what happened.

Yes, I know of at least one other incident - and there have probably been more. Sadly, this is the way some very unhappy people choose to end their lives. Their have also been 1 or 2 deaths that were undetermined - that is the authorities couldn't determine if the death was deliberate or accidental - due to the person being very drunk.

CAPH52 - I was writing my above response when you posted. You are correct. The person jumped in front of our moving train. None of the passengers arund us saw it. We were in the second car in the front rows on the opposite side and were talking to the gentleman sitting in the front row on side it happened. The entire front car was empty. We were lucky that the train didn't derail. I would imagine that the police need to be thorough and routinely take everyone's names at a crime scene.

Yes, we were in Rhinebeck NY waiting for our daughter to arrive from the City. And waiting and waiting. Finally the Amtrak did come and she explained that someone had been struck by the train in an evident suicide and there was a delaying process of investigation with interviews.
Bill now in Boston