The Boy Who Loved Transit
May 11, 2015 7:18 AM   Subscribe

 
This story is from 2002, there is an update on the WSJ but you need a subscription.
posted by ellieBOA at 7:19 AM on May 11, 2015


Previously on McCollum.
posted by asperity at 8:26 AM on May 11, 2015


The "victimless crime" angle really bugs me, and I'm trying to figure out why. He's unrepentant and a recidivist, which never goes well in the eyes of the law and courts.

Is an imposter, even if self-taught/mostly trained at a task, doing the due diligence, right or wrong ? He comes across and helpful and all that, vs bumbling and making things worse, but that doesn't matter. Struggling with those thoughts - we have volunteer fireman who are trained, but not employees, there are limited places for someone like McCollum to legitimately explore his hobby (since he burned all bridges to being a professional)..
posted by k5.user at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2015


It was "victimless" only due to luck. Part of a group's ability to function in an emergency is that they know each other and that there are few random surprises thrown in the middle. Even an extra minute sorting out an unknown factor can cost lives.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:52 AM on May 11, 2015 [4 favorites]


There are a few things I don't understand:

1. Did he every apply for a job working in transit? I realize they're probably closely guarded union jobs, but it sounds like he's more qualified than just about anyone who might be applying with no training at all. Why was he never just hired?

2. How was he doing this? I mean someone is scheduled to drive each train, right? Since he doesn't work there, he wouldn't have been scheduled to do it. Where's the scheduled driver? Did they get fired for handing over a train to a non-employee? It says they were "calling him to do shifts"..Who was calling him to do shifts? What?

It was "victimless" only due to luck. Part of a group's ability to function in an emergency is that they know each other and that there are few random surprises thrown in the middle.


But that's the crazy part. It seems like they did know him. He wasn't a surprise. It seems like a whole bunch of people enabled and encouraged him and as soon as there was a problem, they threw him under the bus, so to speak.

I would think the bigger possible vicitm-creating problem is that whoever ensures the transit system would surely refuse to pay any claim that happened with 10 miles or 24 hours of this guy, leaving the city on the hook for who knows what.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:05 AM on May 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


Only victimless due to pure luck. If this guy were driving a train with your loved one inside when it derailed, for instance -- or if he decided he'd had enough of being a good false employee and decided to use his fathomless knowledge of the transit system for evil -- how victimless of a crime would this be then?
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:12 AM on May 11, 2015


Can someone with a WSJ subscription summarize the update?
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:12 AM on May 11, 2015


Can someone with access to the WSJ post a summary?
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:13 AM on May 11, 2015


Whoa.
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:13 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


It was "victimless" only due to luck.

This. The worst accident in the MTA's history was due in no small part to a barely-trained replacement driver working overtime during a transit strike. It's all fun and games and Helping A Young Man Live His Dream until the shit comes down, and then you want someone who actually knows what he's doing.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:14 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


Search for the guy's name on Google news, and enjoy the redacted WSJ article via their link.

Basically, he got busted driving a Trailways coach (he picked up a flight crew at a hotel and took them to the airport), and is going back to prison.
posted by thelonius at 9:16 AM on May 11, 2015


Why was he never just hired?

From the vague way they talk about it, I get the sense that by that time he'd already been arrested for falsely driving trains, which - I think rightly - probably disqualifies you for an official job doing such, one where they want you to be accountable to their rules, not just 'love of the trains.'
posted by corb at 9:28 AM on May 11, 2015


The WSJ update about stealing a bus is from 2013. I think he's eligible for parole again later this year?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 9:47 AM on May 11, 2015


or if he decided he'd had enough of being a good false employee and decided to use his fathomless knowledge of the transit system for evil -- how victimless of a crime would this be then

Well a hypothetical crime isn't a crime at all, victimless or otherwise. By your standard everyone in the world is a criminal. What if the lollipop lady sharpened the edge of her stop sign and chopped up all the kiddies? What if the I've cream man used ground glass instead of sprinkles? What if the lighthouse keeper decided to become disco lighthouse keeper stu?
posted by biffa at 10:05 AM on May 11, 2015 [6 favorites]


Well a hypothetical crime isn't a crime at all, victimless or otherwise.

But somebody took Pelham 1, 2, 3.
posted by maxsparber at 10:13 AM on May 11, 2015


... and then you want someone who actually knows what he's doing.

One of the points made in this and other articles I've read about him is that he does know what he's doing; that, in spite of his not belonging there, he followed established procedures in dealing with situations that arose.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:27 AM on May 11, 2015


From the vague way they talk about it, I get the sense that by that time he'd already been arrested for falsely driving trains, which - I think rightly - probably disqualifies you for an official job doing such, one where they want you to be accountable to their rules, not just 'love of the trains.'

I dunno, it seems like he was actually thrilled to learn and follow all their rules, except the one about having to be an employee. This seems like disqualifying people with drug convictions from working in legal marijuana dispensaries and horticulture: You're removing the most skilled, loyal, and interested people from your hiring pool.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:33 AM on May 11, 2015


Well, the blogger and Harper's say he was competent and followed the rules. And well, since journalism is a business that requires no actual training or professionalism, I can see why they would buy into that narrative.

One of three tenets of the internet age is "anyone can do it", so I suppose the notion that people should actually be trained and bonded would be aggravating.
posted by happyroach at 10:47 AM on May 11, 2015


It sounds like the railman who let him drive the train at age 15 really did him a disservice:

In the 1981 subway case, the motorman who was supposed to be driving the train told authorities he allowed the teen to take over the controls after becoming sick. The real story, Mr. McCollum claims, was the motorman let young Darius drive the train. Charges against Mr. McCollum were dropped in a proceeding in a juvenile court.

Mr. McCollum said he believed the incident "blackballed" him from employment with the city's transit system.

It's hard to see how they could have taken him on after that. But it's sad to think that if it wasn't for the actual adult professionals in the situation being incredibly irresponsible, maybe he could have just kept hanging around the motormen's break room for another three years, taken the civil service exam at eighteen, gotten a job on the subway, and lived happily ever after.
posted by ostro at 10:57 AM on May 11, 2015 [4 favorites]


Well, the blogger and Harper's say he was competent and followed the rules. And well, since journalism is a business that requires no actual training or professionalism, I can see why they would buy into that narrative.

I wasn't necessarily convinced that he was fully competent or even that he necessarily followed all the rules. But he definitely valued competence and rule following and knew more than joe-schmo job applicant off the street. So had he been hired, he would have been trained, and then one would think he'd be at least as competent as anyone else immediately post-training and know the rules at least as well. Though in reality, since he would have started way ahead of the curve on the day he was hired, probably a little better than other newly trained hires.

By "hire him" I didn't mean "Well, he's working, why don't you just pay him to carry on what he's doing."
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:00 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


What a sad story. I have pretty mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the dude should definitely not be in prison. On the other hand, I don't know if the solution would be to just give him a job--if a job was all he wanted, I feel like a guy this obsessed with his occupation would have the drive to procure some job, some way. But he never did. Which leads me to infer that maybe something about the thrill of doing this illicitly is as powerful a motivator for him as his basic obsession with transit. Say the MTA did give him a job, maybe not driving the trains themselves, but some kind of support role that would put his skillset to good use--he might just keep running off and doing shit he's not supposed to, and if something did go awry on one of his jaunts, that would be an enormous liability for them.

Some real unanswered questions though--as ostro points out above, clearly he can only do this because of irresponsible workers who enable him to do it--the people he picks up shifts from, and the people who look the other way though they know he's not official. I get the impression that these people don't really have McCollum's best interest in mind.

I hope things can somehow work out for this guy, but it seems like he needs to get out of his own way, at least as far as his mental condition allows him to.
posted by zchyrs at 11:02 AM on May 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


Guy has spent 18 years in prison due to his love of trains. He should not have spent even one (though I'm not quite sure what the response should have been instead).
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 11:33 AM on May 11, 2015


Let's all start a kickstarter to buy him a nice rig and Train Simulator 201X. Shit, they should hire him as a consultant.
posted by johnnydummkopf at 12:24 PM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


At first I wished very much that this young man could have been hired in some capacity, but then I realized I know very little about Darius's conduct, only what reporters choose to report on. Readers can't assume that his obsession is equal to competence. For the NYCTA to hire him could be about as sensible as SEGA hiring Christian Chandler.

The system (not the transit system, but THE SYSTEM, you know) did indeed fail the McCollum family on many levels. He should be somewhere safe and protected, including from himself.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:56 PM on May 11, 2015 [4 favorites]


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