Pissed to death…

It was just a few days ago that I sat twiddling my thumbs in a halted train – my final means of commute for the day –while it played havoc with with my logistics schedule.
It was a simple travel schedule with no major expectations.

One that had survived a 20 minute overcrowded bus ride in an Italian heat wave; almost missing a flight because the new staff member at the check in desk hadn’t learnt where to find ticket numbers yet; a one hour connection stop off in Switzerland among frustrated business travelers; and finally arriving in England to find a shuttle and at last, the correct ticket office for my train.

But then, Murphy and his infamous law showed up again in that crackling Limey voice of the conductor, “On behalf of the train organization I would like to apologize for this inconvenience… we have stopped due to trespassers along the tracks. We will continue as soon as the tracks have been cleared.”

“Trespassers?” I wondered. “Gosh, Murphy is getting more and more imaginative these days. Why would anyone even want to cross these monstrous tracks anyway,” I wondered.

I’ll admit that I hardly imagined it was because the English don’t have enough lavatories at their train stations.

But, this week, after a Polish man electrocuted himself to death while weeing on the railway track, this claim is being discussed in all earnestness. And, perhaps rightly so, seeing as 40% of the 60 people that die on railway tracks each year die of electrocution.

After all, who knows how many people out there have died from peeing on railway tracks? (Unfortunately these statistics were not available at the time of going to print).

Filed Under Media & Society, Modern Life, Wondering