[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57934000/jpg/_57934891_57930762.jpg[/img]
[quote]Railway staff in Indonesia have started hanging concrete balls above train tracks to try to prevent commuters from riding on carriage roofs.
The first balls were installed just above carriage-height near a station outside the capital, Jakarta.
More will be put up elsewhere if they are found to keep people off the roofs.
Previous attempts to deter roof riders included spraying roofs with paint, spreading oil on carriages and hiring musicians to perform safety songs.
Correspondents say those initiatives have failed. Officials hope that the latest move will prove to be the ultimate deterrent.
Roof riders also face the possibility of imprisonment.
Electrocuted
The balls - which can deliver a severe blow to the head - will be suspended a few inches above the tops of carriages at points where trains enter or pull out of stations, or where they go through crossings.
Officials told the BBC that "roof surfing" can be extremely dangerous. In 2008 at least 53 passengers died in an accident while travelling on a train roof. In 2011, 11 people were killed.
Most victims are electrocuted by overhead power cables, but some fall off train carriages while trains are moving.
The BBC's Dewi Safitri in Jakarta says that passengers on train roofs can be seen every morning and evening. At peak times about 400,000 commuters cram in or onto carriages to travel into and out of the centre of Jakarta.
While tickets are cheap by Western standards, poorer people struggle to pay which is why they go on the roofs, correspondents say.
The main problem, commuters say, is just how crowded the trains are. Reports say some ticket holders also end up on train roofs because there is no room inside.
Officials say they have tried everything to stop the problem - and even put rolls of barbed wire on train roofs - but nothing has worked.
Officials say that if the latest initiative is successful, the project will be expanded.
But the "roof surfers" themselves told the Associated Press news agency that they are determined not to be put off.
"I was really scared when I first heard about these balls,'' said Mulyanto, 27, who rides daily between his hometown of Bogor and Jakarta almost every day for work.
"It sounds like it could be really dangerous. But I don't think it will last long. They have tried everything to keep us from riding... but in the end we always win.''
Trains criss-cross Indonesia - but often on poorly maintained tracks left behind by Dutch colonisers 60 years ago.
Critics say that the problem of "roof surfing" will never be completely ironed out until there are fewer delays and enough trains to meet demand.[/quote]
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16596181]**SOURCE**[/url]
I pity whoever is on the roof and then spots this from 200 meters away.
So when they die what happens?
As dangerous as it it, I would want to ride on the roof for the sheer thrill of it.
It sounds fun as hell
[editline]17th January 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=FlashFireSix;34260607]So when they die what happens?[/QUOTE]
Shovel them to the side of the tracks, of course.
Like turning the windshield wipers on when a bug splatters on your car :v:
[QUOTE=FlashFireSix;34260607]So when they die what happens?[/QUOTE]
It proves that the concept works
[QUOTE=FlashFireSix;34260607]So when they die what happens?[/QUOTE]
Dinner is served.
Great thinking there!
To stop people from being injured by riding on top of trains, you put things that injure people riding on top of trains.
Why not just put spike walls above the trains? That will stop them getting injured!
Wouldn't it be easier to stick barbed wire on top of the trains?
Why large concrete balls? Why not just a couple I-beams or something?
[QUOTE=Terminutter;34260652]Wouldn't it be easier to stick barbed wire on top of the trains?[/QUOTE]
How uncreative and unentertaining.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;34260654]Why large concrete balls? Why not just a couple I-beams or something?[/QUOTE]
It's supposed to intimidate them.
They could just string thin metal wires but that would be a terrible idea.
[QUOTE=Terminutter;34260652]Wouldn't it be easier to stick barbed wire on top of the trains?[/QUOTE]
[quote=article]Officials say they have tried everything to stop the problem - [B]and even put rolls of barbed wire on train roofs[/B] - but nothing has worked.[/quote]
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;34260675]How uncreative and unentertaining.
You should be ashamed of yourself.[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry.
How about chaining honey badgers to the roof?
[QUOTE=Terminutter;34260701]I'm sorry.
How about chaining honey badgers to the roof?[/QUOTE]
That on the other hand is brilliant
People can get hurt surfing on trains, so you put something above the track to hurt people surfing trains.
I'm sure there's logic in there somewhere.
[QUOTE=Terminutter;34260701]I'm sorry.
How about chaining honey badgers to the roof?[/QUOTE]
I...I think I love you.
[editline]17th January 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Camundongo;34260786]People can get hurt surfing on trains, so you put something above the track to hurt people surfing trains.
I'm sure there's logic in there somewhere.[/QUOTE]
Yes, it would work. :v:
Cords of piano wire...
[QUOTE=Fariun;34260881]Cords of piano wire...[/QUOTE]
Wouldn't even have to drag the bodies to the side. Just get a broom and sweep off the giblets :v:
Just let 'em
either that or get policemen on the roof :v:
Ummm why not bigger trains? You know so people don't HAVE to ride on the roof.
[QUOTE=Phaselancer;34261020]Ummm why not bigger trains? You know so people don't HAVE to ride on the roof.[/QUOTE]
Probably too expensive to improve the infrastructure of train system for the whole country for that.
Oh hey, my first serious post in this thread.
The logic makes no sense.
Your pathetic attempt to counter balls of steel with balls of concrete is [I]laughable. [/I]
i like trains
[QUOTE=Scrimp;34261266]i like trains[/QUOTE]
i like balls
[QUOTE]hiring musicians to perform safety songs[/QUOTE]
uhhhh...
concrete's not that bad either.
[QUOTE=GunFox;34261111]Your pathetic attempt to counter balls of steel with balls of concrete is [I]laughable. [/I][/QUOTE]
They are full of sement.
[QUOTE=HawkeyeTy;34261283]concrete's not that bad either.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I smack my head on concrete all the time going 100mph.
I don't even get a scratch.
[QUOTE=MIPS;34261332]They are full of sement.[/QUOTE]
I see what you did thar.
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