Galactically Stupid

When I read about events in real life, sometimes a line from a favorite movie will pop in my head that encapsulates it for me. From Top Gun, "The defense department regrets to inform you your sons were killed because they were stupid," was such a line regarding this stunning story:

LEBANON, Maine (AP) ― Two teenage girls sunbathing on a railroad trestle lost limbs when a train came upon them unexpectedly in this New Hampshire border town, police said Wednesday.

The girls were lying on beach towels on the trestle over Three Mill Pond when the train rounded a corner and began braking and blasting its horn shortly before 11 a.m., said Lt. Gary Fecteau of the York County Sheriff's Department.

The conductor and engineer say they never saw the girls move, but their injuries suggest they tried to scramble away at the last moment, Fecteau said.

Destiny Phaneuf, 13, of Lebanon, lost her leg just below the knee; Rachel Brown 14, also of Lebanon, lost a foot, Fecteau said. Both were airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland.

The girls were cutting class and enjoying the sunny weather when the freight train came upon them, Fecteau said. There's no indication the girls were impaired by alcohol or drugs, or that their hearing was impaired by headphones, he said.

Phaneuf was unconscious when authorities arrived; Brown told police that the pair had fallen asleep while sunbathing, he said.

Once you get past the notion that this is indeed tragic (about two seconds), you realize that for the rest of their lives, if they were to give advice to a friend, that friend could be entitled to say, "Should we or should we not follow the advice of the galactically stupid!!!" (From A Few Good Men, for the newbies.) Classic.