Mexico: Street vendors set up shop on train tracks

31620289_83bcc29866_m.jpgFile under “only in Mexico”, this is pretty shocking: street vendors in Cuautitlan, Mexico are operating their businesses on live train tracks:

In spite of the frequent passing of trains some 500 vendors set up their stalls on the train tracks and offer their merchandise to thousands od people who visit this market each week.

The “tianguis” [outdoor market] sits 300 meters away from parallel tracks where on December 28th a crash between a passenger bus and a train took place, leaving 22 dead and nine injured.

According to Mexican daily El Universal, the vendors say “we have time to run,” and are referred to as “toreros” because of their way of evading the passing trains, and thus their deaths.

Via / El Universal

Image via Rageforst’s Flickr page

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Reality TV kills

1502SU1.jpgReality TV — America’s collective crack pipe — can sometimes be unbearable to watch, but who knew that it could also be deadly?

When I occasionally have watched shows like Fear Factor, I always thought “What if someone got seriously injured or killed? How do they protect against this?”

It seems that sometimes these shows are less than vigilant and the unthinkable happens. That’s what happened during the taping of a reality show in Uruguay last week:

A runaway train killed seven people and injured at least 11, severing some of their limbs, during the filming of a TV show in Uruguay, police said.

The accident occurred during a “test of strength” challenge to raise money for a hospital in Young, 380km (235 miles) west of the capital, Montevideo.

Contestants were pushing and pulling a train and two carriages when the vehicle gained speed and ran them over.

Good God. This begs the much asked question “Has reality TV gone too far?” I personally think that the business model of low-production costs for high profits should at the very least take into consideration the safety of the participants.

Via / BBC News

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