How painful would getting hit by a train be?

[Entity Pleased]

I'm considering jumping in front of a train. Not a bullet train but a regular freight train. I imagine there would be some pain, but would it be a quick death or a slow and agonizing one?

I feel like this is an easily accessible method. Don't have to buy a gun, learn how to tie a noose, or jump off a tall building (I'm afraid of heights). Just have to stand on the tracks and brace for impact.

Anyone else considered it? There is definitely some likelihood of surviving, but I wonder how this possibility compares to other methods.

 

[ZeroRedz02]

I'm considering jumping in front of a train. Not a bullet train but a regular freight train. I imagine there would be some pain, but would it be a quick death or a slow and agonizing one?

I feel like this is an easily accessible method. Don't have to buy a gun, learn how to tie a noose, or jump off a tall building (I'm afraid of heights). Just have to stand on the tracks and brace for impact.

Anyone else considered it? There is definitely some likelihood of surviving, but I wonder how this possibility compares to other methods.

So much people consider this method you aren't the only one, but if i would choose to being hit by a train i would want to be sure that the train is fast enough, but about the pain.. It will be painful for sure, but it will last a second i think realistically.

 

[GT Darkarage]

Yes there will be pain surely.
A few seconds max.

 

[ZeroRedz02]

Yes there will be pain surely.
A few seconds max.

Still weird to hear it, after hitting hard the ground by falling from a terrace and still not being able to suffer in pain i think i was so in an unconscious state to not having a single moment of pain.. Lucky me.

 

[dirkw83]

This is what my nephew did, and he died instantly as far as I've heard. I don't know how fast the train was or how he jumped in front of it. I'm sad for the driver but I'm happy my nephew got the release he was looking for. That said I think he got very lucky, it can easily go wrong.

 

[CarbonBased]

I don't know much about trains, but I was always wondering something. You know how some people purposefully lay in-between the tracks and let a train pass over them for entertainment? What are the chances that you get hit, then land in such a way such that your at least the most vital organs are in-between the tracks. If that were to happen, I think you could survive with severe injury (and a lot of pain that comes with it). Or do you die like immediately on impact? I really don't know

 

[bb142342]

I don't think much of that method, because of the toll it takes on the train driver—and the passengers, too.
These days, when an incident like that happens, they don't just make short work of it—hauling someone away and moving on like they used to; instead, there has to be an hours-long official investigation to determine if it was truly a voluntary act. That leads to a lot of delays.

With freight trains, depending on the country, you have to keep in mind that they only travel at 80–120 km/h. If someone is standing on a straight stretch of track, there's a high probability that the emergency braking will slow the train down just enough to ensure things go wrong.

As for just standing there—I'm not sure. I once read that it's supposedly better to lay your neck across the rail.
But I don't even want to picture that, because trains have those cowcatchers or deflectors at the front designed to push aside large rocks and the like. You'd likely get hit by that mechanism rather than the wheel itself.

All in all, it's a gruesome thought. And, unfortunately, it ties into the blame directed at politicians—since they use every means possible to block those who wish to die from achieving their goal of a gentle end.

 

[xXSufferingXx]

this was someone doing it to him, not his own doing

 

[iwanttodie019]

Still weird to hear it, after hitting hard the ground by falling from a terrace and still not being able to suffer in pain i think i was so in an unconscious state to not having a single moment of pain.. Lucky me.

You survived fall from a terrace?

 

[thelostautistic]

I've considered it but I wouldn't want to traumatise the driver. I also know I could never go through with it. I also imagine the clean up would be awful.

 

[post_card]

Personally i think i would chicken out in front of a train. They are really scary and big.
When I was reading some article about suicides on the tracks, i remember there was this one example of a woman that ran onto the tracks and just before the train hit her she put her arms forward, like she was trying to defend herself from the train, and turned her head back. Like she tried to stop it from hitting her.
That image got stuck in my mind now.
If you are afraid of the heights then I would say that the train method might not really work for you. The pressure one must feel to stand your ground and prepare for the impact must be immense.

 

[Disabledfromjump7]

If it cut parts off it would be awful. I've heard of some people also surviving trains. :(

 

[iw2begone]

just fyi, train drivers are trained for this eventuality as it is almost guaranteed to happen during their service. they are trained to start braking and just look away.

 

[Selbstentleibung]

I don't think much of that method, because of the toll it takes on the train driver—and the passengers, too.
These days, when an incident like that happens, they don't just make short work of it—hauling someone away and moving on like they used to; instead, there has to be an hours-long official investigation to determine if it was truly a voluntary act. That leads to a lot of delays.

With freight trains, depending on the country, you have to keep in mind that they only travel at 80–120 km/h. If someone is standing on a straight stretch of track, there's a high probability that the emergency braking will slow the train down just enough to ensure things go wrong.

As for just standing there—I'm not sure. I once read that it's supposedly better to lay your neck across the rail.
But I don't even want to picture that, because trains have those cowcatchers or deflectors at the front designed to push aside large rocks and the like. You'd likely get hit by that mechanism rather than the wheel itself.

All in all, it's a gruesome thought. And, unfortunately, it ties into the blame directed at politicians—since they use every means possible to block those who wish to die from achieving their goal of a gentle end.

I'm with you here.

My perspective is that trains should actually be put in the non-methods megathread. Why? As a dispatcher for freight trains I have to deal with the aftermath of such incidents at least once a week. Frankly, it does cause a lot of problems for everyone who is planning on using the section of track where the incident happened - both passengers and us freight train people. Not even gonna rant about the hundreds of thousands of bucks in damages such an incident can cause. Or the trauma for the engineer or anyone who might witness what happens. Or the delays that us dispatchers have to justify to the customers. Or the absolute mess of a shredded meatloaf with red sauce splattered all over the train that someone has to clean up. Or the smell of human flesh sizzling on hot brake pads from the emergency stop.

Don't get me wrong; you're free to ctb whenever and by whatever method you see fit. Just keep in mind that opting for a train to take you to the other side ruins the day for quite a lot of people and maybe even an entire career or even life (and sometimes family) by causing severe trauma.

Not trying to convince you to find a different method. Just keep in mind that the aftermath of this one is a bit more complicated than the regular "put the body in a coffin and organize a funeral" for everyone else involved. Oh, and depending on where you live companies can actually sue your relatives for the damages that you caused.