On the train tracks...? Help?

Question

I'm a 15 year old and was with 2 of my friends of the same age.I live in Queens, NYC close to Long Island.There's a small line of forest that goes down a bay near my house, when I was 9 or 10 people would always walk around through the woods and make clubhouses,so I went back there today and tried to find my old stuff.What happened was that we got through and jumped down a 6ft wall which we couldn't get back up, and after walking a few steps more we see we are totally stuck, or we can walk straight in one path and meet the LIRR tracks.We decide it's our only choice and walk towards it, and while going down the dirt to get back onto the street a lady from a train car sees us and tells us we need to leave.After that we continue walking and the next train comes right up to us and stops, tells us to leave and says the cops have been called. Stopping a train seems like a big deal to me, but what else could we have done?Do you think we could get in trouble for this?

Thanks alot!!

Answer 1

It would seem you did the only thing you could do. But are you sure there wasn't a fence involved. The reason I ask is because that place you were at certainly seems like a dangerous trap, not to be separated by some type of barrier.

Answer 2

Sometimes one has to do what one has to do.  Getting out of a tough spot is easier when you don't get yourself into a tough spot to begin with.  So, a lesson learned here, hopefully.

But, when people ask here how it is so many people get killed by a train, it is often because they have placed themselves in that tough spot.

I know I sound like a broken record, but there are some simple do's and don't's around the tracks:

If you don't have to be on them, don't be on them.

When approaching a road crossing at grade, stop (not always an option with today's heavy traffic everywhere) look (a real look --- not a glance) and listen by turning down the music and rolling down the window.  This applies at ALL crossings whether protected by gates or not.  They don't always work, but your eyes and ears do...

If on foot, expect the movement of any equipment on any track in either direction at any time, without warning.  Never step on top of a rail.  The chances of slipping are high and if you fall and bash your head on the rail, you're gonna die.

The main thing is, use your common sense.  The ones without will be culled from the herd by nature in the process of natural selection (Thank you Darwin)...  it's called "stUPidity."

Here's a star for a good safety question...

Answer 3

You wont get in trouble, no one wants to get you in trouble, they just dont want you or your friend in dangerous places.

You're right, stopping a train to warn someone is a big deal, but have you ever seen a dead body pulled out from under a train? that's a pretty big deal too.

Those people werent trying to hassle you, they truly care for your safety and dont want to see you or your friends hurt.

Answer 4

You were illegally trespassing along a busy stretch of track.  Yes, you could have gotten into big trouble if a policeman had stopped you.  Since that doesn't appear to have happened, you got away with it--this time.  

Be aware, though, that what you were doing was also very dangerous.  The trains came to a stop to protect you and your friends from harm.  I'm not sure which line you were on, but if it's powered by electricity, as most of the LIRR lines are, it was very, very dangerous for you guys.

The bottom line is that now you know to stay away from the tracks.  If you go there again you will likely be picked up by the police, with all the bad stuff that goes along with it.  There's also danger from vagrants and other bad folks you might encounter.  Take today as a lesson not to go back.

UPDATE:  Today I was speaking to a NY Police officer, who coincidentally has applied for a job as an MTA officer working the LIRR.  I told him your story.  He said that the police are no longer giving warnings.  If they catch trespassers along their right of way they are hauling them in.  He also commented that the electrified rails would, if you had touched them, had immediately killed you.

Answer 5

i am glad at least, that you are still here on earth to worry about a policeman.  many trespassers on rail get hit and killed by trains or get electricuted on 3rd rail/overhead wires, especially in LIRR territory where they use it.

stopping a train to tell you to get off the tracks IS a big deal.  

but having to stop the train to get body pieces out from under it, getting coronor and police investigators, and cleaning the locomotive off of blood and guts IS even a bigger deal, and delays all the passengers on the train for a good 60-90 minutes, delays all other trains on the line bcs every other train has to stop too, and delays all the passengers and ticket agents at downline stations waiting for trains that have stopped.

now perhaps once you got yourselves on the track, you had to walk alongside to get to an accessible out, but there is a reason that a 6ft wall was put there, and you purposely chose to ignore it.  

so yes, you could have had a police visit, or even a ticket (in Illinois, tickets are 500$ by the way), so consider yourself fortunate if all you got was a warning and a stern yelling from a train driver.  

and dont do it again.  please.