https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5cn9bc9r5I
Officer is keyed in on a suspect during a foot pursuit and is struck by a train. The officer survived with a concussion and broken bones.
Printable View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5cn9bc9r5I
Officer is keyed in on a suspect during a foot pursuit and is struck by a train. The officer survived with a concussion and broken bones.
The only times I can ever remember being so narrowly focused were both after blows to the head...
Once hit with a baseball bat in the orbital on someone's back swing.
The other during a full contact match when I took a shot to the head that would have cleaned my clock but for the standing 8...after which I returned the favor. Felt like I was underwater both visually and auditorily.
Until I got that call about the remnants of a dead body that belonged to a person that apparently was walking along the tracks, got snagged by the engine and dragged who knows how many miles, I never put any thought into how much wider train cars are then the tracks. Trains tracks are about 4 1/2 feet wide and train engines and cars are about up to about 10 feet wide. A train afficiado can give us better numbers. Point being that relative to vehicles, that are our normal point of reference in life, trains are significantly wider than the track of their wheels.
This may not be tunnel vision as much as just not knowing where the line of fire actually starts.
The officer said he didn't realize he was that close to the tracks so there's likely some of that as well. I think the increasingly frantic sounding of the train's horn would have gotten his attention had he been on a routine stroll and not keyed up. I didn't see any movement of the camera that would indicate to me that he looked behind him to see where he was in relation to the train or why the train was blowing the horn.
Either way, a good reminder to be aware of your surroundings.
I wouldn't disagree that there's some tunnel vision going on there. The suspect seemed to be keenly aware of where he needed to be in relationship to the train.
Too many of us, myself included, have lucked through that situation where I was in a lot of danger, and I just didn't know what I didn't know at the time. It's easy to ignore danger signs when we think they don't apply to us.
Be careful where you park.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ji0bTmrspo
Regardless of how exactly this happened, study after study shows it happens in real events.
How do we train out of it? Can we?
I think we can lessen the impact via stress inoculation and realistic training (simunitions with role players, etc.). I don't think you can ever entirely overcome it. It's hard-wired into our brains and at a certain stress level it's going to occur.
Think of vehicle pursuits. You're first one you are all hyped up. Voice a few octaves higher, heart beat approaching hummingbird status, etc. Rookies have an elevated heart rate just from hearing their own siren (as do new medics and firefighters). Get a couple dozen pursuits under your belt and your stress level is lower due to the exposure. A decade later and you could swig a cup of coffee during a pursuit (you shouldn't, mind you, but you could).
I've made this point a few times in a few different places lately, but we don't expect commercial airplane pilots or surgeons to perform under pressure in the real world until they've performed under simulated pressure first. We're doing cops a disservice if we don't provide simulated fights, pursuits, etc. for them before they are called upon to do it in the real world with real lives at risk.