Darwinism Does Repeated Strikes In Portland Over The Weekend

[Coss]

This weekend in Portland, OR Darwinism struck 3 times.
Cause: Distracted Pedestrians.

The Max is a light rail system throughout Portland. Even though it's light rail, it's still a full size train.
On two separate instances distracted pedestrians (earbuds in, looking down at their phones, oblivious to the world around them) ignored the warning lights and gates and walked out in front of a train traveling at speed.
One died at the scene, the other is in critical.
The third incident was another distracted pedestrian stepped out in front of a bus that had a green light (right of way) it happened in a way, the bus driver didn't even have time to hit his brakes (pedestrian had stepped out from between two vans) pedestrian died on scene.

One of the basic rules I had embroiled into me at a very early age was "look both ways before crossing the street / railroad tracks. If you don't you can get hit by (insert moving object here)"

 

[John-b-gone]

Natural selection may account for many things but stupid is not one of them.

 

[Rickb]

Cell phone distracted pedestrians pose a threat to themselves and it's sad for their families. My issue is the cell phone distracted driver that runs into a car full of smart people and the driver at fault is the only survivor.

 

[BilgeRat]

I live in a college town, so this problem is a frequent occurrence, and it's most of the reason that I put air horns on the Miata. A friend who used to work as an engineer on the Union Pacific subdivision through town here said that he averaged about one close call a week just in this town, and that often it was pedestrians on the tracks (that's trespassing...), often with earbuds or headphones on.

 

[NSTG8R]

At work, if we have a part that can't be fixed/repaired, we "scrap and replace" it per process requirements. Since it's said that, "You can't fix stupid", maybe it's just Mother Nature's "scrap and replace" procedure.

 

[Coss]

There are so many repeated incidents of this; this one, I think, was one of the first National News report example of it:

And of course what does she do? Find someone to sue for her actions:

They're saying there are about 5,000 cases of things going wrong per MONTH!
60,000+ people a year having something happen because they forget they live in a real world.

 

[Rickb]

Those are probably the same people that text and drive.

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Natural selection may account for many things but stupid is not one of them.

I disagree, I strongly feel that not only is stupid it's own reward, - stupid represents a major contribution in thinning the herd

 

[John-b-gone]

I disagree, I strongly feel that not only is stupid it's own reward, - stupid represents a major contribution in thinning the herd

I agree, I heard it right after I typed it.

 

[Hotscoots]

Thin the herd