As I was leaving the house today, I heard them say on the local news, that a 35-year-old woman in Leucadia died after being hit by a train.

My first thought was about how a friend and I were surprised by a statistic that said every 20 minutes, someone in the U.S. is hit by a train. We couldn't believe there were that many idiots around. But, this is an example of one.

Her dad died a year earlier, in the same spot, the same way -- via train.

I guess to some degree it's sad. She was there setting up a memorial. But, she laid a shirt of his on the tracks, and somehow fell, and the train got her.

That makes it hard for me to have a lot of sympathy. I mean, putting anything on the tracks, seems like bad news. Could that damage the train? Would the train conductor see it, think it's a person, and slam on brakes? I don't know, and I doubt she did either.

Now, my heart goes out to the family that had their daughter murdered by former officer Craig Peyer. They had a memorial right under Mercy Road in Poway. And, the father died at that spot.

Just thinking about how often he probably grieved the loss of his daughter, and him dying at that spot, is still hard for me to think about.

But someone going around train tracks, is just insane.

Our parents taught us when we were little kids, not to run out into the street. You'd think, with her dads death (I don't know the details of it, but you really have to go out of your way to have a train hit you), she would've at least learned the hard way...not to play around the train tracks.


Anonymous March 5, 2008 @ 10:25 a.m.

Suicide? How can someone not hear the train coming? They blow their horns all through the city.


Michael Hemmingson March 6, 2008 @ 1:03 p.m.

I read the police report on this and it looks "suspicious." It was a suicide or...and you have to jump in front of a train pretty quickly to get hit; the train can stop if they see someone in the distance on the track.

In the Knott memorial you mentionn, her father died of a heart attack at the same scene.

In both cases, I would surmise that heartbreaking grief had a lot to do with it. I cannot go by the intrsection in Borth Park where an ex-girlfriend died when a drunk driver hit her car. I cannot go near the spot where she died because I know my heart would probably stop beating.


Michael Hemmingson March 7, 2008 @ 6:36 a.m.

Well, if it was really a suicide (I am heaing hints of homicide suggestion), one must question the wife's thoughts about her husband -- did she realize what she would put him through...then again, without detailed data, one can think of all kinds of scenarios....the marriage could have been going south and she WANTED her husband to live with the guilt, because in some cases, suicide is a way "to get even" with another person, such as a someone you love but does not love you back, etc.

Who knows. It is a strange case.


Josh Board March 6, 2008 @ 4:16 p.m.

Sorry to hear that, Mike. Yeah, I couldn't remember Knotts name. Only the killer, Craig Peyer. Isn't that something.

Yes, on AM radio, I heard that it was ruled a suicide, which makes me have even less sympathy. She killed herself, IN FRONT OF HER HUSBAND!!!!! You think your heart would stop beating, this guy will probably never be able to go near a railroad again.


Josh Board March 9, 2008 @ 4:13 a.m.

The weirdest suicide/revenge case ever. My friend, now a partner in his law firm, was going to school at Hastings (northern california). A female student there broke up with her boyfriend. He kept calling, trying to get her back. One night he called and told her to look outside her window. She did. And, he had tied himself to some bridge, doused himself in gasoline, and lit himself on fire. And she saw it all happen. Wow! But, I say, in situations like that, instead of being riddled with guilt, just tell yourself...if you would've stayed with a guy that is this mental, and had kids with him...what happens the first time you get in a major fight? Or he loses his job? Or some crazy thing. He'll kill the kids, then himself. So, better to weed out the nut cases earlier, before a family is started with them.


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