A train in India strikes a crowd of people on the tracks, killing 37. I have seen conflicting reports investigating this story, some claiming 20, some claiming 37 dead. All of the stories are pretty consistent with what happened after, a mob dragged the driver from the train and was beat to death, or near death, another inconsistency.

Okay, lets look at the facts here, a train moving at a high rate of speed (50 mph) simply cannot stop on a dime. It takes a long time to slow that much mass traveling with that much speed. Simple physics. One story I read claimed the group thought they could get the train to stop. Most of the other related stories just claimed they were on the tracks. Either way, an act of sheer stupidity. Darwin Award stupid.

So we have a tragic incident (I try to avoid using the term accident, as I believe there is no such thing as an accident. Someone did something that wasn’t too bright, resulting in an incident) A great deal of people, on the track with an oncoming train moving at a high rate of speed. Train is physically unable to stop and tragically, many dead. That is bad enough. The story should end there, but it doesn’t.

A mob, clearly as well educated as the people on the tracks, then decided it was the driver of the train at fault, so they beat him either to death, or just short of death. Then set fire to the train. Then, according to one story on the subject, hampered rescuers/authorities responding to the scene.

Snowball effect of ignorance and hate. This is why we will never know world peace. This is why the Middle East will never be a  region of calm. This is why people the world over simply do not have the capability to react to a bad situation, whatever it may be, in a calm rational manner, and think things through, before they react violently.

This is why, in certain situations, we are no better than fucking wild animals. This is the ugly side of being human.