Woman shoved onto rail line 'after telling thugs to stop smoking'

no respect for themselves or their elders......

thats terrible i hope they caught those guyz

Damn...kids need better ways to release some of the anger the harbor. Its so unnecessary to react in such a violent way.

I'm glad to see citizens taking a stand for what they believe in...This woman should be highly praised and made an example of, how she wanted the ability to have her right to clean fresh air, without the poison of smoke... even though it did nearly cost her her life!

Good Job, Mrs. Mother of three! Your kids are lucky to have such an exemplary role model!

What a strange article. It implies she was pushed on the tracks for telling them to stop smoking on the platform, which is odd since they were on an outside platform so it wasn't illegal for them to light up.

Then the quote from the local police reveals she'd actually told them to stop smoking earlier in the week, they remembered her and shoved her onto the track as she walked past them days later.

'Detective Inspector Bob Richardson said: 'It would appear the woman had spoken to the men about smoking earlier this week. This morning when she was at the station, she was walking past the same men when one pushed her and she fell onto the track."'

On the other hand, the Daily Mail points out that her house is worth £300,000. A most excellent and informative addition to the article.

By accosting the woman days after they had been advised to stop smoking, these youths demonstrated a premeditated attack and giving the finger to CCTV were aware of the potential catastrophic consequences.

If a train had been on-coming no doubt the images would have made YouTube and be circulating every school yard mobile device - I would expect no less from our callous happy-slapping underclass.

People don't like being told what to do.

Guess she picked the wrong ones...

Stand up for your rights!

Ride on!

usually smokers aren't easily irritated while they are smoking...

She's the next taser owner.

Oh no she asked you to stop smoking....how threatening. They must know how bad smoking is for them or they wouldn't have cared they were asked to stop doing it. Walk away and nod your head.

Don't return and shove her over the next day....talk about brooding over a simple request to either comply with or ignore.

If she didn't want to breath smokey air, then she should have just held her breath. I'm sure the platform smelled much better than some smoke, not.

although they obviously shouldnt have done what they did to her I applaud the fact that they were smoking and wouldnt listen to the womans interfeering.

If citizens are not "supposed" to get involved with holding other folks accountable for their behavior what are they to do--just breathe noxious fumes?

If the police do not want folks speaking up then there needs to be more police available on the streets. It is bad enough that this would happen at 7am in front of witnesses think about what must go on afterdark if one is willing to leave their home alone.

Have we come to a time with thugs own the streets and the rest of us must stay locked in and ready to defend ourselves?

shit

I dont think this is going to improve the image of smokers. Being smoker in the 1950's - 1970's was respectable. Nowadays? Not so much.

I think it's perfectly normal to wonder what motivates a smoker to smoke and what kind of person actually does it. I mean it isn't like candy! No one lights up the first time and says, "Wow! That tastes soooo good and it smells wonderful!" Smoking actually sucks. It smells, well, like smoke and you cough terribly the first few times you try it. And it's been proven to given you cancer. So why would anyone force themselves to get used to sucking in smoke? Is it to better equip themselves to run into a burning building to save a baby? LOL. Nope, just to look cool.

And even those days are numbered. The days of smokers being viewed as "cool" and "hip" are pretty much over. Nonwadays smoking (for better or worse) is associated soley with being very low brow.

And this incident only reenforces that perception.

It's not vegans shoving old ladies in front of speeding trains.

You cant place every smoker in the same catagory, however, what these guys did was and is sinister and should be jailed for their attempted murder. they didnt really care about her asking if they could stop smoking they cared about the fact that she had the guts (unlike many others) to speak up to them and ask them to be considerate of others. Any and all people of their nature should be arrested because they are the reason for the crime rates and violence in the world.

I don't know much about that location, but in St. Louis, MO, it's illegal to smoke on the Metrolink platform even though it's outdoors. You're supposed to put out your cigarette in the provided ashtray before approaching the platform. It's easier for people to do that than the transit system paying somebody to clean up cigarette butts all day long. I don't think the woman did anything wrong by telling the guys to stop smoking, but I would have just walked away from them if possible. There should have been security guards at the platform telling smokers to not to smoke.

They were thugs who just happened to be smoking. To criticize smokers as a whole regarding this story, is just silly.

i bet she's one of those fanatical ex-smokers who makes it their biz to harass people . she looks high strung and obnoxious . she definitely had it coming to her .

I was only joking about the smokers and the vegans (though, statistically, there does tend to be more smokers in violent street gangs than vegans).

But I agree it is unfair to judge a whole group like that and just assume there must be something wrong with them.

Just like it would be really unfair, for example, to assume all cutters tend to have some unresolved psycholoigcal trauma that expresses itself through self-mutilation. That would obviously be an unfair sterotype. I'm sure there are many cutters that are perfectly well adjusted and just happen to enjoy a nice, relaxing razor blade slice up the arm after a hard day's work (I'm just teasing!)

mind your own fucking business next time lady!!

With all the stress of life in the big city why would someone interfere in anyone's own business.
Leave the smokers alone what did you want him to do
go smoke on the street his $9 per pack cigarettes.
next time gfy and shut up!!

If she'd hit that live rail, she'd be crispy and dead right now. Even still, she's got a broken wrist. Forget about smoker's pride and think about that.
I don't care how disrespectful/ shortsighted/ nosy/ arrogant she was - they answered words with near-fatal violence. This was monkey-esque overreaction, and it shouldn't be applauded. Those scabs need to get a beat down.

That said, am I wrong in assuming The Daily Mail isn't the most objective news source ever?

It seems as if more and more violent crimes are happening over nothing . It's bad enough that the majority of our society seem too scared to speak their mind. it's just ridiculous. I live outside of Memphis and around here one has to be careful about what is said to strangers, it's a very violent and scary time. It's terrible, but I'm glad she survived. Hopefully the punks get what they deserve.

this is why no one talks to anyone anymore.

The rail stations do not allow smoking because:

(1) litter - it would mean having to employ someone to sweep the platform and littering itself is now a fineable offence in which case someone would be at risk of possibly breaking complex personal health and safety legislation by engaging in confrontational situations;

(2) risk of fire from still lit tab-ends being thrown in rubbish bins - if of course all the bins have not already been removed because of potential terrorist threat;

(3) inconsiderate smokers like to stub out their tab-ends and make melt patterns on plastic surfaces;

(4) have you ever been in an enclosed space after a smoker? Even if someone has smoked outside the train, exhaling in the carriages would make them smell of smoke thus alienating non-smoking passengers - gone are the times when for provision of smoking and non-smoking carriages was made; budget cuts and lack of government subsidy means that passengers should expect to be wedged in stood-up like cattle;

but perhaps mostly importantly...

(5) because there was a sign clearly indicating that smoking was not allowed on or within vicinity of the platform.

They were just smoking the wrong stuff. If marijuana was available they probably would have let her slide. On second thought, if pot was legal, violent crimes would decrease worldwide.

We need more vigilantes.

The point I take away from this article is that the thugs aren't afraid. The aren't afraid of other people watching them and they aren't really afraid of the police (mostly because there were none around). What triggered their violent outburst is beside the point. Today it was smoking, tomorrow it'll be some other excuse to start throwing punches.

What's needed is a sociopath with a hatred for criminals who prowls the streets and beats the shit out of punks. If the punks knew it wasn't safe for THEM to be out at night then that would definitely tap down the random acts of violence on the lawbiding citizens.

Or maybe a more realistic approach would be more police in that area. Most crimes are crimes of opportunity -- and I doubt anything would have happened had patrolmen been stationed at the entrances and exists of the station.

Someone needs some Mase... Fire at will.

So who is the Smoking Nazi.

I'm not saying the kids were justified in their actions, but we all know how we feel when someone buts their nose in where it doesn't belong.

I bet she will mind her own buisness next time. Walking up to a complete stranger telling them what to do is common in the rich white persons world. I suprised they pushed her. They must have gotten really freakin pissed.

As arrogant and annoying as she may have been by butting in and telling them to stop smoking, it's ghoulish of the two guys to retaliate like that.

You know who you are when I say this. A lot of you have real balls and some nerve to assume that a person well dressed is 1.rich 2.snobby or 3. deserving of the outcome that came about. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on weather or not they want to inhale second hand smoke, where it has actually become illegal to smoke. I as a smoker would extinguish my butt if ANYONE not just an elder were to ask me, in a public place where the breathing is limited. Fresh air IS all we have that IS indeed FREE and people have every right to enjoy it any way they seem fit. If violence is becoming to you then maybe you need to spend some time behind bars right along with the FUCKERS who attempted to kill and elderly woman for expressing freedom of speech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god! Am I reading this right?!

People, I think you are missing the big picture here! I see comments about smokers, and how that woman should have minded her own business, but PUSHING A WOMAN OFF A TRAIN PLATFORM ISN'T NORMAL!!

I don't care if she was an annoying fart, or if it was/wasn't illegal to smoke there (though it isn't. and I'm a smoker, sue me.)

The fact is, this behavour should be punished. There is no reason to push people off platforms, period!

And NO. It's not only smokers, and I'll tell you my similar story.

I live in amsterdam, and had my bike. I took the lift (elevator) to the metro platform, when a woman walked into the lift. This person started throwing trash she had in her purse right on the lift. When I told the woman that the lift wasn't a garbage can this woman spit on me and almost attacked me, and wouldn't let me step out of the lift. I had to be helped out by an onlooker and I was utterly humiliated.

The obvious problem with this and the lady's story is violence. I didn't feel like being in the same square meter as her trash, this woman wouldn't take people smoking in non-smoking areas. Yet we took crap.

And all you people comment about is wether she "deserved it" or wether smokers are assholes.

This is what is wrong with society.

This is shocking. I have an overactive imagination but every time I go on the nasty London tube I wonder just how easily someone could creep up behdind you and push you in front of a train. I seem to have developed an over-shoulder-checking twitch. Um, anyway...

It was interesting when news of this first broke - the woman hadn't yet been identified and some reports described her as a 'pregnant' woman. Poor lady - she narrowly escapes death in a horrific attack and all anyone notices is her not-completely-flat belly!