3 ms·

I wonder how many ways these could get attacked in modern litigation culture. I can think of two. 1. The graphical injuries shown are an admission by the rail

I wonder how many ways these could get attacked in modern litigation culture. I can think of two. 1. The graphical injuries shown are an admission by the railway company that such injuries can happen, increasing its liability when something does. 2. The graphical nature of the posters could "trigger" traumatic experiences in someone...

giraffe_lady 3y ago
Are you literally making up a guy to get mad at here? There are still intense and even gruesome safety PSAs all over the world.
HPsquared 3y ago
Also the simple PR / marketing issue... Discouraging customers and making more more NIMBY activity
bluGill 3y ago
Generally modern litigation assume you follow the following steps: design the problem out, guard it out, then warn it out. Those are ordered steps, so if you can fix the problem with a different design you can't put guards on and call it good, but if there is danger remaining after looking at the design and adding guards then a warning sign is a way out of liability. Many of the dangers listed cannot be solved with a design or guards, so signs noting the danger are the correct response and will be used in court to show they knew of the danger and tried their best to prevent it in the only way left. Note that these are from the mid 1960s - there is technology today to design out some of those hazards that didn't exist then. Platform screen doors for example didn't exist back then, but because they do now you can no longer warn about someone getting to close to the platform edge, you need to design it out by adding those doors (such doors do not work on curved platforms so signs are still useful for some really old stations that are impossible to remodel). For all the others you have a good case against the railroad if you get hit by a train since they should have doors, fences, and quad arm crossing guards which by design make it nearly impossible to get on the track and thus there is no danger of getting hit.
- iggldiggl 3y ago
  > such doors do not work on curved platforms so signs are still useful for some really old stations that are impossible to remodel They also don't work if you've got multiple types of rolling stock with incompatible door layouts, and ideally you'll also need Automatic Train Operation – while having platform screen doors together with manual driving isn't impossible (compare the Jubilee Line in London between 1999 and 2011), it's not ideal and likely costs some capacity due to the more careful driving required for stopping accurately enough.
yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
Have you been to Thailand? Nobody is going to court for triggering in Thailand. The insane culture of litigation in USA is very much a USA thing.
pineaux 3y ago
This is the reason Americans are losing their edge. There is heavy risk aversion. It is a cultural dead-end. Risk needs to be counterbalanced by securities, but risk cannot altogether be avoided. Avoiding risk has a very heavy intended punishment. The other side of the same coin is also not good, to take too much risk. But all in all, current American culture looks insane from a distance. Especially concerning how kids are reared. Recipe for drug addiction and depressions.
petesergeant 3y ago
> The graphical nature of the posters No country’s media takes “if it bleeds it leads” quite as seriously as muang Thai, which features gore as front page news very regularly, and if they censored a particularly gory one, you can be sure your neighbour will post the uncensored version on FB. Literally the only thing more compelling to a Thai newspaper reader is a photo of a staged crime re-enactment with the suspect surrounded by policemen and various people pointing at important things.

giraffe_lady 3y ago

Are you literally making up a guy to get mad at here? There are still intense and even gruesome safety PSAs all over the world.

HPsquared 3y ago

Also the simple PR / marketing issue... Discouraging customers and making more more NIMBY activity

bluGill 3y ago

Generally modern litigation assume you follow the following steps: design the problem out, guard it out, then warn it out. Those are ordered steps, so if you can fix the problem with a different design you can't put guards on and call it good, but if there is danger remaining after looking at the design and adding guards then a warning sign is a way out of liability. Many of the dangers listed cannot be solved with a design or guards, so signs noting the danger are the correct response and will be used in court to show they knew of the danger and tried their best to prevent it in the only way left. Note that these are from the mid 1960s - there is technology today to design out some of those hazards that didn't exist then. Platform screen doors for example didn't exist back then, but because they do now you can no longer warn about someone getting to close to the platform edge, you need to design it out by adding those doors (such doors do not work on curved platforms so signs are still useful for some really old stations that are impossible to remodel). For all the others you have a good case against the railroad if you get hit by a train since they should have doors, fences, and quad arm crossing guards which by design make it nearly impossible to get on the track and thus there is no danger of getting hit.

iggldiggl 3y ago
> such doors do not work on curved platforms so signs are still useful for some really old stations that are impossible to remodel They also don't work if you've got multiple types of rolling stock with incompatible door layouts, and ideally you'll also need Automatic Train Operation – while having platform screen doors together with manual driving isn't impossible (compare the Jubilee Line in London between 1999 and 2011), it's not ideal and likely costs some capacity due to the more careful driving required for stopping accurately enough.

yakshaving_jgt 3y ago

Have you been to Thailand? Nobody is going to court for triggering in Thailand. The insane culture of litigation in USA is very much a USA thing.

pineaux 3y ago

This is the reason Americans are losing their edge. There is heavy risk aversion. It is a cultural dead-end. Risk needs to be counterbalanced by securities, but risk cannot altogether be avoided. Avoiding risk has a very heavy intended punishment. The other side of the same coin is also not good, to take too much risk. But all in all, current American culture looks insane from a distance. Especially concerning how kids are reared. Recipe for drug addiction and depressions.

petesergeant 3y ago

> The graphical nature of the posters No country’s media takes “if it bleeds it leads” quite as seriously as muang Thai, which features gore as front page news very regularly, and if they censored a particularly gory one, you can be sure your neighbour will post the uncensored version on FB. Literally the only thing more compelling to a Thai newspaper reader is a photo of a staged crime re-enactment with the suspect surrounded by policemen and various people pointing at important things.