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Students on wrong track

Apparently 300 or so tickets have been issued for trespassing on train tracks in Canada. Students, the little rebels they are, have had a particularly bad track record in terms of offences.

Do trains pose a danger to the average person? Well, trains are huge and loud and follow a very specific line—we could ask, how stupid do you have to be to get hit by a train? It doesn’t matter how loud your iPod is, so long as the tracks aren’t on a bridge or cliff, it is still quite unlikely that anyone with functioning legs and half a brain will actually get hit. But let’s not fly off the rails here, because believe it or not, it does happen.

Right now, there is a fine for trespassing on train tracks. The fine is the same as any trespassing fine for illegally walking on private property, and the system we’ve got is probably as good as it needs to be. Anyone willing to risk putting themselves in danger, as minimal as it may seem, by deviating off the beaten track will likely be no more deterred by a $500 penalty than the $200 penalty that exists at present.

Students determined to shave precious seconds off of their commute times will be fairly difficult to retrain. Anything harsher would be seen as draconian and anything less could be seen as negligent on the part of society. What should change, though, is enforcement. If being ticketed for trespassing on the railway was the norm, rather than the exception, this would probably cease to be an issue very quickly.

It’s also fairly well established that the onus of one’s safety generally falls upon themselves, the developed world is significantly less Darwinian than that. Systems meant to deter people from putting themselves into dangerous situations is tried and true—anyone who doesn’t agree on this may as well be arguing about seatbelts.

In the end, though, while awareness of what exactly defines trespassing on train tracks and enforcing the penalties for people who are taking shortcuts in dangerous areas might be beneficial, seriously people, are you actually getting drunk and walking on train tracks?

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