Not to be used for ramming

[greek_jester]

After the third time, I told her that if she did that again, I'd hit her as hard as I was able accross her butt with one of my crutches.

You waited until the 3rd time? You saint! I'd have warned her after the 1st time, then whacked her the 2nd time.

Those scooters hurt when they hit you.

Shortly after I moved to this area, I heard on the news about a lady getting mowed down by a scooter the next town over. She ended up having to get her leg amputated They never did catch the person riding the scooter.

Another time, my work colleague's son was standing at a pedestrian crossing while holding his bike (the cycle path was on the pavement, & the crossing was notorious for people still driving through after the lights went red). An old man in a scooter rammed into him & knocked him over, then yelled at him for being in his way! The scooter hit hard enough that the bike was too warped to ride. The old coot zipped off before the poor kid could get up again.

[Magpie]

You waited until the 3rd time? You saint! I'd have warned her after the 1st time, then whacked her the 2nd time.

Nah, just scream because of the pain she's causing you.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, the first time, I assumed it was an accident, cuz she muttered "sorry". The second time, I ignored it. However, I tend to go along a "three strikes and you're out" policy in non PMS time.

[MoonCat]

Oh yes, the strollers! Some of those things are the size of Cadillacs. And 9 times out of 10, the kid is being dragged along by the hand so mommy and daddy can fill the stroller up with their purchases.

[PepperElf]

I think he needs a padded room instead of his meds...or maybe that and STRONGER meds...

If only there was a pill to cure assholeism...

[dalesys]

If only there was a pill to cure assholeism...

Cyanide...

[Lace Neil Singer]

Oh yes, the strollers! Some of those things are the size of Cadillacs. And 9 times out of 10, the kid is being dragged along by the hand so mommy and daddy can fill the stroller up with their purchases.

I will never understand just why people need a buggy the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, anyway. -.-

[georgie]

I went to the royal show last week. when i was in sideshow alley where all the games and rides are there was an elderly man using one of those walking frames.

going as slow as he was he still managed to walk that walking frame over my foot. he didnt even look embarrased just backed up and moved away from me.

all i was doing was standing out of everyones way at the side watching one of those vomit inducing rides.

my lovely white runners have a wheel tread across them



my daughter has been in her wheelchair (not a motorised one) for about 12 years now. in all that time ive only ever run into (and over) people a very few times and all those were deliberate

usually people ignored daughters wheelchair and walked right in front of it or bumped it and a few times nearly tip it over. didnt care if her legs were in plaster or she didnt look well. so i would occassionally pretend not to see those rude people either (oooh look theres a bird up there) and just keep pushing daughters wheelchair and if they managed to get their foot/leg/body rudely in front of it then too bad. most apologised realised they'd been rude to ignore the little girl in the ginormouse wheelchair

[Shalom]

Mostly because a train is damned heavy. Most trains go at about the same speed as most cars, though special high-speed trains can go substantially faster than that.

Rough guide to train weights:

Locomotive: 75-150 tons. Freight engines will be at the upper end of this range for traction, high-speed engines will be at the lighter end to reduce track forces.

Passenger carriage: 30 tons plain, 50 tons with a motor (eg. DMU). Add about 2-3 tons if fully loaded.

Rigid freight wagon: 25 tons empty, 50 tons full.

Bogie freight wagon: 40 tons empty, 100 tons full.

So a typical HST set weighs about 400 tons: two 75-ton power cars and eight 30-ton passnger cars. Maximum speed 125mph. You don't want to be hit by one.

These sound like European weights. Everything here runs on bogies; we don't have 4-wheel wagons except in specialised things like ore hopper cars used at mines.

The Electro-Motive SD70MAC, a typical freight locomotive for long-distance use, weighs 207 tons, and the maximum gross weight for freight cars on mainline track was recently raised to 143 tons each (used to be 131½ tons). (Data from here.)

Now imagine a train with four of those locomotives and 100+ coal hoppers loaded to capacity. Coal drags don't move all that fast, but they still carry one Hell of a lot of kinetic energy...

[Marmalady]

I've never been hit by a scooter, but I have had the skin taken off my ankle by a little old lady with one of those shopping trolleys (big tartan bag on wheels).

She was bundling along pulling it behind her, dragged it straight across my ankle - either she didn't hear my scream of pain or just didn't care. On her way she went while a kind sales assistant helped mop up the blood and found me a plaster (bless).

[Chromatix]

Mmm, the Yanks like to make their trains heavy, all right. The axle load on those EMDs must be epic - the heaviest locos I know of in Britain are 140 tons and use eight axles to spread the load (it was one of these that was used for the nuclear flask test).

Also, the Series 66 - essentially the same as our Class 66 - weighs "only" 130 tons, but the Germans say it can handle any of their trains single-handed. Some of that is due to advanced traction control, but the American locos have that too.

[Shalom]

Mmm, the Yanks like to make their trains heavy, all right. The axle load on those EMDs must be epic - the heaviest locos I know of in Britain are 140 tons and use eight axles to spread the load (it was one of these that was used for the nuclear flask test).

Many years ago, an engineer from Italy (although this thread claims it was France) came here to observe the usual practise of railroading. His comment on seeing the rolling stock was, "Gentlemen, you don't move cars, you move houses." That thread also has some interesting argufying about US vs Euro locomotives and their different design requirements

The SD (Special Duty) series has six powered axles, so that works out to 34.5 tons per axle. (These are "short tons" of 2000 pounds each, not tonnes.) Obviously you don't use these on lightly-built branch lines, or on those which haven't seen any maintenance in years: those normally get 4-axle units assigned to them. EMD even made a 5-axle locomotive once (the altogether weird dual-power FL9) with one idler axle in the rear truck, specifically for use on one trestle in Manhattan that couldn't take the axle load of a conventional 4-axle machine.

(The FL9's could operate on the third rail while in the Park Avenue tunnel as required by city ordinance, although never very well, as they couldn't use full power with the prime mover shut down: you can't draw 1300 kW out of only two contact shoes without them welding themselves to the rail.)

[TheSHAD0W]

This is related, and has been all over the net recently...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9bd_1286400540

Darwin Award candidate.

[Crossbow]

This is related, and has been all over the net recently...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9bd_1286400540

Darwin Award candidate.

Was wondering how long before this showed up here...

[zombiequeen]

The mental image is amazing. My brain is happier thinking that.
I really wish he tried running over one of the people's feet, so that the police could arrest him and take away his house so he'd have to fly away with a bunch of balloons tied to it.

Wait, wrong movie...