Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 4, 2009 at 12:49 pm

Paly security were watching the train tracks yesterday while school was in session. Police were parked alongside the tracks beside Meadow yesterday afternoon, 4.00 pm and later.

There is only so much that can be done. The Caltrain tracks cannot be watched 24/7 at all public access places.

We are in panic mode in Palo Alto.

Posted by Greg, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jun 4, 2009 at 12:56 pm

Guarding the train tracks is only a last resort. The first line of defense against suicides has to be friends and relatives taking care of each other. Also, we need to provide easy access to quality counseling services well before people start thinking about suicide.

Posted by no mo uh oh, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jun 4, 2009 at 1:42 pm

"uhoh", why would you post such a title? Do you have something to connect the two incident or to indicate that this was a suicide attempt, or that the person who ran into the train was a student or even connected to Gunn or any thing related to the events of the past days?

There was nothing to indicate any of that in the web-link, and nothing that you wrote that backs up your title. It just sounds like you are trying to whip up emotion, and with the name "Uh-oh" it sounds even more like that. Do you have a point?

Posted by Norm, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 4, 2009 at 2:04 pm

When I first saw the story, I thought about an occasion years ago when I was BARTing from SF to CoCo County.

When the train got to MacArthur (a very late train, a gent sitting facing the doors, and dosing, roused and realized, at the last second (or just past) that it was his stop. He dove for the door, hands still in jacket pockets, in a fashion that would do Charrlie Chaplin proud. Snickers were minimun - until he slithered to the next car. Then the rest of us were on the floor.

I really hope the event at Menlo Park was akin to that.