Another death on Caltrain today, apparently somebody hit by a train while walking on the tracks in San Mateo. There have been an unusually high number of deaths this year. But it doesn’t seem to me that Caltrain is operating any less safely than the year before. Are people getting more careless?

Well, this evening, as my train was approaching, a young woman was talking on her cell phone while standing right at the edge of the platform, leaning wayyyy over the tracks and peering intently off into the distance as if trying to make out some faraway train. And facing in the wrong direction, of course, to see that in about 15 seconds she was going to get whacked in the back of the head by Lord knows how many tons of steel crawling into the station. Just oblivious, and apparently to engrossed in her conversation to hear the train approaching behind her.

Another passenger noticed this before I did and started making frantic waving gestures to her; she figured it out and scurried out of the way with maybe five seconds to spare. Sheesh.