Train-Hopping Ends in Tragedy, Impulsive Freedom-Fighter Spared Consequences

Two college stunts are in the news this week, one ending in dire consequences, the other not.

17-year-old Colorado State freshman Anna Beniati tried to hop a freight train Tuesday in Longmont but fell underneath the train's wheels. Both of her legs were severed, one at mid-thigh and one below the knee. Beniati and three male students were trying to hitch a ride from Longmont to Fort Collins.

The train was traveling northbound at about 10 miles an hour when the accident occurred. Beniati is hospitalized at Denver Health Medical Center in serious condition.

While Beniati's exuberance ended in a lifelong loss of limbs, another college student taking a rash risk was luckier. 21-year-old Chris Jeon, a student at UCLA, impulsively headed off to Libya this past summer to join the freedom fighters. Jeon was unprepared for the reality of the African nation's civil strife, reportedly unfamiliar with the operation of guns and the country's language. Nevertheless, the college senior thought freedom fighting "would be cool," Yahoo! News reported.

The rebels were unimpressed by Jeon's bold action. Gawker reported Thursday that Al Jazeera tweeted the news rebels had sent Jeon packing. He is now preparing to return to the United States.

Risk-Taking a College Rite of Passage

College students taking risks most adults would consider rash is nothing new and assumes many forms, from drug and alcohol use to physical challenges.

* In 2008, 19-year-old Alex Perry of Keene State College nearly drowned after trying to navigate a dam in an inflatable kiddie pool, according to The Associated Press.

* An ad hoc "security survey" in 2003 landed 20-year-old Nathanial Heatwole in hot water with federal authorities. Heatwole, who attended Guilford College in North Carolina at the time, placed box cutters, bleach and other prohibited items on passenger planes not once but six times. Heatwole was sentenced to probation on felony charges and banned from flying without first obtaining his probation officer's permission.

Some researchers have suggested that risk-taking is developmentally appropriate for college students. College students typically engage in at least one behavior adults would consider dangerous, the literature shows, and most manage to avoid drastic consequences.

Psychologist Marvin Zuckerman pointed out in a Psychology Today article that risk-taking has both positive and negative implications. He said his work has shown "people have a basic need for excitement- and one way or another, they will fulfill it."