Skeletons, tombstones and spirits are standard fare around Halloween season. These traditional symbols of death are turned into fun, cartoonish caricatures for our amusement.

While much can be said about how our culture has fun with death, a fact that is evident this time of year is that we don’t take death seriously until it affects us personally.

Not taking death seriously has allowed our generation to focus on living. This is a good thing, but it may also have an effect on how we prioritize safety.

Four accidents involving TRAX trains happened in four days, the most recent having been a woman who was run over and killed on her way to the Ute football game on Saturday.

In all of the accidents that have recently occurred near campus, people prioritized convenience over safety.

There is hardly anything more ridiculous than getting hit by a TRAX train. It’s big, it’s fast, and it’s been around for five years. Unlike typical car accidents, laws must be flagrantly broken to get in the way of a train.

And unlike car accidents, the final outcome of the collision is always certain-TRAX will win.

It’s a train, for crying out loud. People are careful around freight trains! Why are they stupid around white, two-car urban light-rail?

And there’s nothing more the Utah Transit Authority can do to prevent accidents.

Laws are made to keep drivers, pedestrians and trains moving smoothly and safely.

The stupidity seems to be rooted in a lack of serious fear of death.

Why else would members of our community prioritize convenience over safety?

There is no doubt UTA will continue emphasizing safety rules after all these accidents. But the only solution is for everyone to stop thinking of skeletons and tombstones as front-yard scenery and begin thinking of them as a result of what happens when you mess with a train.