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People don't think a train can sneak up on them.
It's huge, makes a lot of noise and is dead easy to spot. The idea that it can move with such blinding speed to the point where its there one moment and gone the next; the idea that it can make so much noise that it drowns out another whole train etc... Most people don't work with nor around trains - they see them at the station and the road crossing and that's it. Both controlled environments where you don't have to do any thinking about the train - the warning lights and announcer do all that for you.
And you still get people jump the barriers because "Gah its not even here yet I can make it"
Heck we make mistakes like this ALL the time in cars too. Humans are, I think, not designed to think in speeds above 30mph (considering that's about our fastest and even then only in a sprint for a few moments). So judging speeds and reaction times becomes a lot harder and we are more apt to make mistakes.
Most folks slept throught the class where they taught about the dopplar effect.