[legion]

I was on an Amtrak train that hit a Jeep back in '96. Someone had stolen the Jeep, took it for a joyride, and parked it on the tracks to dispose of the evidence. The train didn't derail, and I didn't even know that we hit anything until they stopped the train and explained the situation. We just sat and waited for an hour so the engineer could talk to investigators...

The Jeep was obliterated, the train was undamaged.

I could see this person thinking the same thing would happen. That doesn't excuse their actions in any way, but it might have been their thought process.