Valley teen among train wreck deaths

Valley Press ^ | Sunday, September 14, 2008. | DENNIS ANDERSON and CHARLES F. BOSTWICK

[BenLurkin]

Palmdale High graduate was award winner, star student

CHATSWORTH - An 18-year-old Palmdale college student on his way to visit his girlfriend was among the two dozen Metrolink train passengers killed in Friday's head-on collision with a freight train.

Jacob Hefter, a 2008 Palmdale High School honor graduate who had just started his freshman year at California State University Long Beach, was identified Saturday as one of the casualties of the train wreck, which was described as the worst in the United States in 15 years.

...

Hefter was due to get off the train at the next stop, Hanlon said.

Minutes earlier he had called his girlfriend, a California State University, Northridge student, to let her know he was arriving, his former teacher said.

Hefter had attended Health Careers Academy classes all four years at Palmdale High. At Cal State Long Beach, he was majoring in physical therapy.

...

Hefter and his two older brothers, Jordan and Jared, grew up in Palmdale, the sons of Alan and Angela Hefter. Their mother is a Health Careers Academy coordinator. For three consecutive years, Hefter won a medal in cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the state Health Occupation Students of America competition, Hanlon said. Last spring he was honored as one of the Antelope Valley's high school graduates with 4.0 grade-point averages.

Last January, Hefter and three classmates organized Palmdale High's two-day "Every 15 Minutes" presentation, which staged a simulated car crash outside the campus to illustrate the dangers of drinking and driving.

In March, he and other Palmdale High emergency medical technician class students went through a training session at the Los Angeles County Fire Department's North County Training Center, where they practiced removing a mannequin from a wrecked vehicle.

[avital2]

tears, many tears.

[Boundless]

> It’s not Rocket Science to track what trains are where
> and which track the are one.

Actually, it is (GPS), but it’s available to everyone
these days. Farmers use it and plant within inches of
target.

> You’d think there would be some automatic switch to
> shut them down if the run a red light.

There is, but apparently not in use here (or in Boston
a short while ago).

Upgrades in rail safety, alas, seem largely driven by
spectacular accidents. Accurate pocket watches, for
example, resulted from the all too common carnage of
the carriages over a century ago.

As I pointed out in an earlier thread:
‘Rush to judgment’ in deadly LA rail crash?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082191/posts
The liability payouts here are apt to greatly exceed
the cost of a system that would have prevented the event.