Deadly Irony

[Updated below.]

Attempted murder by train backfires:

A man tried to kill his girlfriend Monday by parking their car in front of a speeding Metrolink commuter train, but instead died when debris from the crash struck him after he had been ejected from the car, police said.

His girlfriend, who was in the car when the train slammed into the vehicle's passenger side, was seriously injured but is expected to survive.

If it wasn't on the L.A. Times website I could've sworn this article was from The Onion.

I've had two close calls with trains twice. Once when I was crossing an intersection, the traffic slowed down unexpectedly. I was stuck halfway through the tracks when the traffic lights turned red and the bars started coming down for the train to pass. Luckily, there was only one car behind me which quickly backed up to give me room to back up, too.

The other one happened a long time ago in the Philippines. My friends and I used to carpool with another classmate who had a van. Her driver once stopped in the middle of the tracks thinking it was funny to scare high school girls into screaming their heads off as we watched the train coming towards us from the horizon. It wasn't a close call at all, but it was still a stupid thing to do. Needless to say, our parents were livid and the driver was fired.

Playing tag with a train never pays. It's like that proverbial story about a ship about to collide with a lighthouse. Doesn't matter how big a ship you're steering, you have to change course.

Update:

Female survivor recants story about the deceased trying to kill her.

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