From NBC4:I found the above to be so heart-breaking, yet heart-warming at the same time. Costco deserves a BIG kudos for this.

Wow. There's a huge lump in my throat after reading that. Yes, I agree, Costco deserves huge kudos for that. I think I'll write them a letter.
:)

Swanky Soundtrack = Superman - Five for Fighting :snap:

Quote stolen from www.newsfromme.com

"I figure: It's your life and if you want to end it, fine. There should be a little service where you can go, pay a couple of bucks and they'll check you out to make sure you're not just upset because the Lakers lost...then, if all is in order, they'll administer some quick, painless lethal injection or stick your toe in a light socket or make you eat tofu or whatever it takes.
This concept might horrify some but wouldn't that be better than forcing someone to park his car on railroad tracks or (as an acquaintance of mine once did), leap off the top of a Manhattan hotel in front of hundreds of traumatized spectators? In this case, it would also spare us wrestling with the morality of the Death Penalty and having a trial, and making survivors come in and testify and then keeping someone locked up forever. This guy who caused the wreck...we don't need to give this guy a trial. We just need to give him a very large bottle of strychnine -- you can probably get them at Costco -- and take him off that Suicide Watch."

The employees and management of Costco did what (hopefully) any of us would have done in the same situation. San Fernando Road is a fairly desolate industrial area running parallel to the train tracks in this neighborhood. It's an extremely busy road during the day, but not exactly where you'd go to take a walk. The Costco is literally on top of where the accident occurred. Can you imagine being at work, unloading stock at 5:30 in the morning and hearing this happen right outside? These people must have thought a bomb went off.
I drove past the accident site on my way home this evening, I didn't want to go anywhere near the place during the day, but at 10PM I didn't think I'd be in anyone's way.You see the pictures on TV, but the size of the thing doesn't translate. I expect they'll be cleaning this up for several days.
I know that they're already talking about how automatic gates need to be installed at railroad crossings, but that would have done nothing to prevent this. At that time of day, with no traffic, all he had to do was park his jeep and wait for the next train. Gates wouldn't have prevented anything.

That's great of Costco-

Can't respond to anything else without sounding defensive this morning- suffice to say I am glad that no one here was on that train-

Death toll is up to 11

Murder may not be the charge because INTENT to cause harm to OTHERS might be difficult to prove in this case.

And FWIW, according to eyewitness stories coming out, he did try to get the Jeep back off the tracks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6870372/

He's already been charged with 10 counts, it will be amended to 11.

I would liken it to walking into a crowded room and firing randomly. You may not have intended to kill anyone, but it's still an act that has little chance of NOT killing someone. This isn't like killing someone while DUI. That's manslaughter because, while the odds are worse, the fact is that most of the time people who are DUI DON'T kill someone. It's not a very direct cause and effect. Parking a large vehicle on a train track, however, has a high, almost unavoidable, probability of death as an outcome.

Yes, he tried to get the car off, but it was stuck. But his original intent was to leave it there. Just because he failed to undo what he was trying to do to begin with doesn't relieve him of his culpability. "Yes, I set a trap for him that killed him. But I was on my way back to disarm it, he just go there first," isn't much of a defense.

Man accused in train crash faces murder charges
Is that ironic, or what?

Aren't there 4 people still missing?