Man killed trying to jump off train in North Philadelphia

[AmtrakBlue]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8956033

 

[The Davy Crockett]

What a sad story. Anybody know if this was at the North Philly Station? (Tjhe article says it happened in North Philly, but not at the North Philly Station.)

 

[jis]

It was on the Fern Rock Line, so clearly not at the NEC North Philly station.

 

[PRR 60]

What a sad story. Anybody know if this was at the North Philly Station? (Tjhe article says it happened in North Philly, but not at the North Philly Station.)

Sounds like this was on the Broad Street Subway.

 

[fairviewroad]

Yeah, the Inquirer article makes it clear that this happened on the subway, not the regional rail.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Man_killed_leaping_from_SEPTA_train.html

What's not clear is how this fellow managed to be where he was in the first place. The first article says

he boarded at the "South Broad Street" station (there is no such place). The last revenue trains through

the area of the North Philadelphia subway station would have been about an hour before this incident.

So was the guy riding around in (or on the outside of) non-revenue trains for an hour? Did he enter

the system legally before it closed then remain in a station (don't they do sweep-thru's of those things

at closing time)? Or did he sneak past/through a barrier at a closed station? I bet this guy's family,

if he has any, will be mighty curious about the answers to those questions.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

CCTV should be able to shed some light on this. Anything else is pure speculation at this point, not that there's anything wrong with that. I will say that I've been surprised at how some facilities are allowed to close down for the night these days. I've been in theaters that had movies which ended with all doors locked, including some that appeared to be emergency doors. Spent time walking through empty corridors over and over again until finally finding a door that opened to the outside. Nobody to contact on the inside, one dead cell phone and another without an active service link made for an interesting conundrum. I've also been in a self-serve laundry cleaning my car's floor mats that simply auto-locked the doors and shut off the lights at a predetermined time. Those of us who became locked inside found a number to call but it only went to voicemail. Eventually we had to break the door open to get out. Is locking people inside your theater or laundromat even legal? For all I know there's a charge of breaking and exiting on my record somewhere. That would make for a laugh, until the sheer stupidity of the situation eventually drowned out the humor.

 

[fairviewroad]

CCTV should be able to shed some light on this. Anything else is pure speculation at this point, not that there's anything wrong with that. I will say that I've been surprised at how some facilities are allowed to close down for the night these days. I've been in theaters that had movies which ended with all doors locked, including some that appeared to be emergency doors. Spent time walking through empty corridors over and over again until finally finding a door that opened to the outside. Nobody to contact on the inside, one dead cell phone and another without an active service link made for an interesting conundrum. I've also been in a self-serve laundry cleaning my car's floor mats that simply auto-locked the doors and shut off the lights at a predetermined time. Those of us who became locked inside found a number to call but it only went to voicemail. Eventually we had to break the door open to get out. Is locking people inside your theater or laundromat even legal? For all I know there's a charge of breaking and exiting on my record somewhere. That would make for a laugh, until the sheer stupidity of the situation eventually drowned out the humor.

IIRC most stations on the Broad Street Line have full-height turnstiles to allow exit from the station platform, but I don't recall whether it's always possible to physically

leave the station itself (i.e. are the steps up to the street blocked off...I think they are, because otherwise the "landside" portions of the station would become homeless

encampments overnight).

Of course, even if this fellow had been locked into the system for the night against his will, nothing would have forced him to hop onto a train.

 

[DET63]

Of course, even if this fellow had been locked into the system for the night against his will, nothing would have forced him to hop onto a train.

Perhaps he imagined himself to be an "urban hobo."