Ethics 101

I tried this recently on MySpace but nobody would respond. I know you guys will (or else!) so I'll try again.

Here's a thought experiment for you all:

You work for a railroad company and you are standing by the track-switching lever. Today has been set aside for maintenance on the tracks. From where you are standing you have a view of the two tracks being worked on. On one side there are 5 workers busily doing repairs. On the other side there is 1 worker doing maintenance. Suddenly you get a call that a train is coming your way and the breaks are out. The train will be here in 10 seconds and you are too far and lacking the means to inform the workers of the coming train. Right now the track is set so that the train will hit the 5 workers. If the lever is pulled, the track will switch and the train will hit the 1 worker. You know that there is no way of saving everybody, no hope of the train stopping, and 100% surety that whichever track the train goes down, anyone on the track will die.

You can leave the track how it is and 5 people die, or you can switch the track and 1 person dies.

What do you do?

EDIT

Since there is so much equivocating over the words I used, I’ll re-state part of this:

There is no way to save all the lives. There is no way to warn anyone. There is no way any of the workers will get off the tracks. There is no way the train will not kill any and every person on the track it takes. There is no way to stop the train. There is nobody on the train to worry about.

The point isn’t to find a sneaky answer; it’s to understand the ethics of the situation. There we go…now I’ve annoyed all of you who’ve come up with great ways around the situation.