If someone was driving a train at their best possible mental state and someone jumped in front of the train would the driver be charged?
I come from a railroad family. We had it enforced on us that we never, ever under any circumstances were to play on or near railroad tracks, and the penalty would have made us wish we had gotten hit! A friend of the family was killed in the railyard when a banding strap came loose on the load of a freight train passing by and hit him. R.I.P., Fuzz. It nearly decapitated him. I saw a passenger train hit a car once while it was entering a station at walking speed. It couldn't stop, and pushed the car the rest of the way into the station with the poor elderly lady inside frantically trying to exit in front of the train (!!!!) but fortunately unable to get the door open, because the car was folded too far to allow it. The train can't stop, even from 5 miles an hour. It can't steer, the standard joke among railroad people is “There ain't no steering wheel, just a throttle.” The poor engineers who have their lives ruined by these fools who commit suicide by train or kids who think a railroad bridge is a cool place to smoke pot are the victims in this situation. The tracks and right of way on either side are railroad property. If someone jumps off a bridge, and lands on your car while committing suicide, would you be charged? Should you be? Should the owner of a building be charged if someone chooses to trespass on their property and kill themselves there? Should the night watchman be charged if some kids climb the fence and drown in a pond on the property he is overseeing? At some point, people need to be held responsible for their own actions. It isn't always someone elses fault that people make bad decisions or decide they want to die.
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