Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Metro Suicide
A friend told me a story the other day that was horrifyingly compelling for some reason.
You know, of course, that people are always jumping in front of metros in this city. I don't think it's merely urban lore that that's what causes many of the delays and stoppages in the system, especially at rush-hour.
Well, this friend was actually on a metro where this happened. He said that:
The metro stopped as it was one or two cars into the station (Lucien-Lallier). Everyone was sitting there wondering what to do (of course). There were large numbers of hockey fans on their way to a game, and the out-of-towners were starting to panic. The doors opened and instructions were given for evacuation.
My friend was in the thrid car, so was able to go to one of the cars that gave on to the platform. He walked to the front of the train (out of morbid curiosity), where there were paramedics with lots of equipment jumping down on to the tracks. My friend saw the victim (Can we call him that?) who apparently was still alive, because they were working on him frantically. He didn't go into detail, but it seems there was a lot of blood etc.
God, it's so sad. I have often imagined committing suicide, but to attempt it in such a public way makes no sense whatsoever to me. But who can explain the ways of the mentally ill, or the terrible suffering that they wish to end?
A friend told me a story the other day that was horrifyingly compelling for some reason.
You know, of course, that people are always jumping in front of metros in this city. I don't think it's merely urban lore that that's what causes many of the delays and stoppages in the system, especially at rush-hour.
Well, this friend was actually on a metro where this happened. He said that:
The metro stopped as it was one or two cars into the station (Lucien-Lallier). Everyone was sitting there wondering what to do (of course). There were large numbers of hockey fans on their way to a game, and the out-of-towners were starting to panic. The doors opened and instructions were given for evacuation.
My friend was in the thrid car, so was able to go to one of the cars that gave on to the platform. He walked to the front of the train (out of morbid curiosity), where there were paramedics with lots of equipment jumping down on to the tracks. My friend saw the victim (Can we call him that?) who apparently was still alive, because they were working on him frantically. He didn't go into detail, but it seems there was a lot of blood etc.
God, it's so sad. I have often imagined committing suicide, but to attempt it in such a public way makes no sense whatsoever to me. But who can explain the ways of the mentally ill, or the terrible suffering that they wish to end?
# posted by becca : 1:57 PM
