From the article: "According to a police report on the death, on the evening of Aug. 11, Davis was walking along the railroad tracks, with his back to an oncom

From the article: "According to a police report on the death, on the evening of Aug. 11, Davis was walking along the railroad tracks, with his back to an oncoming train, when he turned and faced the train before it hit him. The train engineer considered it a suicide, according to the report." In this incident at least, there might have been enough time to halt trains on that section of the tracks until police arrived. There are signals beside the track and radios in the driver's compartment. This happens semi-regularly in my city. The train operator will come on the PA and announce that we are standing while police attend to a person on the tracks at the next station.