For those of you familiar with the Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC) subway system, you'll know there's a strip of yellow on the edge of the platform that customers are instructed to wait behind for their safety as trains come and go.
[Image source: http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/data/images/061117_ttc_subway_300-thumb.jpg; Accessed: February 14, 2010 - 9:17PM]
Now, as is human behaviour, a few of us push that rule and stand as far in front of the line as we dare. So begins our story:
This lady apparently frequently stepped over the yellow line while waiting for the subway train to arrive, much to the angst of her friend (who was narrating the story in the streetcar). Well, one day, this courageous lady managed to get herself a concussion.
See, as a subway train comes into the station, a TTC employee within the train opens his/her window and sticks his/her head out to ensure all is well on the platform during embarkation and disembarkation of the train. The trains can come in at rather high speeds and, unfortunately this one day, our brave young lady's head was in the way. Their heads collided, and apparently her marks of battle included a giant swell on the side of her head, in addition to the aforementioned concussion. The narrator could not recall what had happened to the unfortunate TTC employee who made the fateful blunder of dutifully doing his job.
How close to the edge of the platform could she have possibly been? What point was she trying so desperately to prove to herself? What point was she trying to prove to society? What point was she trying to prove to the authorities that had the audacity to tell her not to stand in front of a stupid yellow line?
And the sad part: people with this kind of attitude are also the same kinds of people who would turn around and blame the ailing TTC for the mishap the first chance they got. I'm not saying she did, or will; but if it happened, I can't say I'd be surprised.
Sometimes you just have to wonder...
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