Shock not exclusive to train drivers
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I HAVE the utmost sympathy with train drivers who suffer long-term effects from killing people on the line, but the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board's refusal, upheld by the Divisional Court, to grant them compensation seems to me to be entirely logical. The court held that mental injury sustained by four drivers after fatal accidents involving suicides or trespassers on the line was not attributable to "crimes of violence."
Emotional stress caused to a motor-vehicle driver under whose wheels a child darts or an old person wanders is no less because it happens on the road. If compensation were granted to railway drivers it should be available to all. Indeed, it could be argued that the road-vehicle driver is more worthy of it, because he or she is constantly at risk and suffers perpetual anxiety.