D.C. Metro crash — very bad news. At least nine people dead and fifty seriously injured. I’ve got many friends who live in D.C. and they all seem to be okay, for which I’m grateful. But that’s no consolation to the families who lost their loved ones and breadwinners today and of course my heart goes out to all of them.
People die in auto accidents all the time and we don’t seem to think much of it. Certainly it’s not newsworthy on a national level. But that doesn’t really make sense. Dead is dead, whether it’s by way of a commuter-rail accident or an auto versus auto collision. But something about mass transit deaths seems to be more horrific. The victims had absolutely no ability to control what was happening; they just got on the train to go home from work, the same as they do every day, and then this happens. Again, for a lot of people, there isn’t a lot of control or choice in an auto accident, but that still somehow feels different.
Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be rational.
