Miss Deaf Texas Struck by Train; Killed

[Divinus Arma]

Miss Deaf Texas Struck by Train; Killed

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The reigning Miss Deaf Texas died after being struck by a train, officials said.

Tara Rose McAvoy, 18, was walking Monday near railroad tracks when she was struck by a Union Pacific train, authorities said.

A witness told Austin television station KTBC the train sounded its horn right up until the accident occurred.

The Irony is...

[Big_John]

what exactly is ironic about a deaf person being killed by a train?

[Strike For The South]

they cant hear and trians are loud.

[Big_John]

hmm.. maybe i need a new definition of irony.

[Papewaio]

Footloose...

[Sasaki Kojiro]

It's irony, it's just in bad taste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

How is it unexpected that a deaf person would not hear a train coming?

[Papewaio]

If it was Miss Big Ears Texas or Miss Hearing Texas getting ran over by a train blaring its horn would be ironic.

This is not.

[Big_John]

How is it unexpected that a deaf person would not hear a train coming?

exactly. i mean, i'm sorry about the girl dying and all, don't mean to jack a thread about her.. but i don't see how a deaf person being hit by a train is ironic. i wouldn't call a wheelchair-bound elderly person dying in a flood ironic simply because they couldn't swim, for example.

i guess if she had been a opponent of safer railawys legislation (assuming legislation exists), then that would have been an ironic death..

[Divinus Arma]

Cosmic irony is a sharp incongruity between our expectations of things and what actually occurs, as if the universe were mocking us.

tragic irony occurs when a character onstage is ignorant, but the audience watching knows his or her eventual fate

Same article.

In this instance it was irony that the very thing that would have saved her life was denied her. This isn't like being in a wheelchair in a flood. This is a clear and specific link between her ability to hear and the very loud of the train. The incongruity occurs in that she is "miss" deaf texas. One would assume that she might have developed other abilities over the course of her life, like an acute situational awareness. Would you not expect her to look both ways? Clearly, this did not occur, and her lack of hearing then effected her death.

It is sad. And Ironic.

[Papewaio]

I think all this shows is the classic:

Don't start a Land War in Asia.
Don't bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
Don't expect US citizens to get irony.

=][=

Irony: a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs.

It is expected that a deaf person will not hear a train.

Therefore it is not ironic as it is expected.

Gerard Depardieu having a bad sense of smell would be ironic.

[Big_John]

Don't expect US citizens to get irony.

i'm a US citizen. (that's called a setup, btw)

Gerard Depardieu having a bad sense of smell would be ironic.

however, Depardieu smelling bad would not be. <-- french-person body-odor humor



seriously though, it's not ironic people. and it is exactly similar to an invalid drowning.. that person was denied the ability to swim, and so they drown. that is not ironic, nor is a deaf person being killed by a loud object, be it plane, train or automobile.

unless i'm missing some secret definition of irony, it's fairly simple.. there is no perceived paradox in a deaf person being hit by a train. there is no incongruity. there is no outcome that is contradictory to expectations.

[Papewaio]

I am unaware of the definiton of tragic irony would you care to inform me?

[Papewaio]

So the witness knew the fate of the girl, while she did not?

[GoreBag]

Ah, but must it not be a tragedy in order for it to be tragic in any sense? I rather think it's pathetic.

[Big_John]

the idea that this death is somehow a manifestation of tragic irony would imply that there is an audience that knew the outcome of the situation before it played out, and that events were presented to that audience that indicated to them that the actors in the events were unaware of the fate which was commonly known. if this case qualifies as such, then any death with a witness where the outcome of death seems reasonable would be ironic (e.g. a person being hit by a bus as the crossed they street in front of onlookers, or a pilot dying in an airshow accident).


i mean, if the train were perhaps carrying hearing aids or devices that allowed deaf people to hear.. then that would be ironic. but this simply doesn't qualify as any form of irony, cosmic, tragic, or otherwise.

[Papewaio]

Shhh Big John I was going for the Socratic Irony.

[KukriKhan]

Originally Posted by Papewaio
Don't expect US citizens to get irony

I guess that's true; I personally am bigger on the gold-y and silver-y, than I am on the iron-y. Mind... I like it better than lead-y.

edit: poor girl... RIP

[Vladimir]

Anyone see the Red vs. Blue skit where they discuss Irony? Hilarious! Halo: Death in a funny way.

[solypsist]

if i see any jokes about the certainty only of deaf and texas i'm gonna go on a banning spree

[Goofball]

I believe the term "cliché" would be more accurately applied to this incident than the term "irony."

[Gregoshi]

if i see any jokes about the certainty only of deaf and texas i'm gonna go on a banning spree

Um, shouldn't they get a hearing first soly?

BTW, that "deaf and texas" was a good one!

[DemonArchangel]

Well, I'm gonna just go with "Tragi-comedy".

It's difficult not to laugh, because it's so FUNNY, but it's tragic at the same time.

[Ronin]

according to the latest news...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/15/mis...xas/index.html


it now appears that she was text messaging while walking along the train tracks....


ok...so you're deaf....you know you can't hear any aproaching trains... and still you choose to occupy your other senses with writing a text message ???


this girl looks more and more like a candidate for the darwin awards....thanks for clearing your dumb ass off the gene pool.

[_Martyr_]

Actually, back when I was in School, in English class we had a lengthy discussion one day about this exact topic. There seems to be an American misintepretation of what exactly irony is. Now I know she is Canadian and some may find that ironic... but Alanis Morissette got it all wrong with her song, "Ironic". Practically NONE of the things she lists is ironic, rather tragic comic or otherwise, but not ironic.

"It's a black fly in your Chardonnay"

Unlucky, not ironic. Would be ironic if "you" were a wildlife campaigner who reared endangered black flys or something to stop them dying out.


"It's a death row pardon two minutes too late."

Again, unlucky, not ironic. It would only be ironic if the prisoner in question had been a former legistrator and insisted on a two and a half minute delay in communicating pardons or something of the sort.

"A traffic jam when you're already late"

Not remotely ironic.

I could go on and on... The only ironic thing about the song is that there is no irony there at all. Maybe that was the second order artistic intent, who knows!

Basically, a deaf woman being hit by a train is exactly the same as any of these things. As was pointed out, had the train been carrying hearing aids, or if she had in some way altered the safety code as to where she could walk, then there would be irony, as it is, its just unlucky. And pretty damn stupid, if I may add.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Don't bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

But you've bet against me, Pape!

But anyway, it is sad. Too bad.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I was taught that in order to fulfill the classical definition of irony, something must not only be a coincidence, but also a contradiction. If there's no contradiction, there's no irony.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

If she wasn't deaf, she wouldn't have been killed.

She couldn't see the train bareling towards her? Maybe she had her back turned the whole time, but, this could be somewhat her fault either way

Either way, it's sorry to hear.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Poor girl. She paid to high a price for a moment of un-attentiveness.

A Darwin award? Pah, I would sooner give it to people who can hear yet still manage to get themselves killed because they are using a cell-phone in traffick.

[itchrelief]

Poor girl. She paid to high a price for a moment of un-attentiveness.

A Darwin award? Pah, I would sooner give it to people who can hear yet still manage to get themselves killed because they are using a cell-phone in traffick.

Yes, but isn't it somewhat ill advised for a deaf person to be walking along the tracks in the first place? It isn't that particularly safe for the hearing, as it is.

[Samurai Waki]

Its odd that she was struck by a train... I used to walk along the railroad tracks in Montana when I was a kid and you could feel a train coming a mile away before you could hear it, the same situation in a vehicle... but perhaps an ore freighter is much heavier, therefore using bigger engines, than a passenger or simple cargo train.