Posted on 10/31/2009 1:24:07 PM PDT by Steelfish
Pa. Mom, Toddler In Stroller Killed By Train
Woman’s two young daughters manage to dart across tracks unharmed
DERRY, Pa. - A woman pushing a stroller across railroad tracks in western Pennsylvania was struck by a train and both she and her 2-year-old son were killed, police said.
The 37-year-old Derry mother and three of her children were returning from a shopping trip early Friday evening, authorities said. They said she was struggling to push the stroller across the tracks when she and her toddler son were hit by a Norfolk Southern train at about 5 p.m. Her two young daughters managed to dart across the tracks and were not injured.
The victims' names have not been released pending notification of relatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I did Peer Support for fellow engineers for a number of years and something like this something the crew will carry with them for the rest of their lives. A car with a drunk is one thing but a mother and child will be replayed over and over. Hope they will be given the help they will need, depends on the RR.
I said it was tragic. I don’t understand your reaction.
You stated something along the lines of “Darwin award, tragic division.” I am well aware of the use of “Darwin Awards” on Free Republic to describe some stupid manner in which a criminal has died or been killed. I have also seen an increasing generality in the use of the term “Darwin Award.” Simply put, there is no humor in the violent death of a mother and her child.
Unless the train swerved at the last second, this mother is an absolute buffoon. Children are way too precious to use as gambling chips and going “all in” against an oncoming train. It’s a friggin’ TRAIN for gawd sakes! You keep your kids safe on whichever side of the tracks you’re on, let the train pass, then proceed across and on to your destination. I feel no pity for the woman or for anyone else who chooses to be so stupid. I do feel sorry for the 2-year old and the people who will have to live with the repercussions of this woman’s choice.
People, if you can see a train approaching... don’t get in its way. It truly is as simple as that.
I did not miss the obvious point that it was the fault of the mother. As far as my “sensitivity,” I find it disappointing by the insensitivity of others regarding this matter...
Coroner Kenneth Bacha said Sheila R. Singer, 37, of Derry, and 2-year-old John F. Smart, died of blunt force trauma when they were struck by a train. He ruled the deaths accidental.
Singer was attempting to cross the railroads tracks with her three children moments before the accident occurred, the coroner’s report said. Singer escorted one of the children across the tracks and then came back for the other two. The stroller in which the 2-year-old was riding became stuck on the tracks, Bacha said.
Both mother and son were struck by a westbound Norfolk Southern train “with audible and visual warning devices in use,” Bacha said.
The location of the accident was not an authorized crossing area for pedestrians or vehicles, according to the coroner.
The accident was the second in four months
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_650895.html
Darwin Awards go to people who foolishly remove themselves from the gene pool. Racing a freight train with a stroller certainly qualifies for foolishness. That the fool was a mother, and that she killed her own child too, makes it tragic. Savvy?
I just wish that people could be nicer...
I got it the first time.
I also got that you were trying to be cutesy/clever in your original statement.
I still think your statement was in poor taste.
Savvy?
Yeah, I savvy. One man’s observation is another man’s cause celebre.
perhaps her two other children ran ahead and she couldn’t stop them, so she tried to catch up to them and failed......I cannot imagine any other scenario......
This is so sad.
my mistake.........this was no accident, it was a fool’s errand. may they RIP.
No controversy here-—we just don’t see eye to eye.
However it happened it is tragic.
I can't imagine what the two survivors are feeling.
I live in a small tourist town that has tens of thousands of visitors every summer. The intersections are always crowded with people waiting to cross. Every time I go to town I see someone using their child's stroller as a place holder to be first across the street by holding the stroller out into the traffic lane off of the curb.
I have seen that dozens of times every year for over twenty years.
Lots more detail here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/1009760-59.stm
“Derry police Chief Randy Glick, who was on routine patrol in the nearby shopping plaza, saw the train approaching and repeatedly motioned and yelled for Ms. Singer to move from the tracks.”
“In July, Douglas Albright, 15, of South Greensburg, was struck by a Norfolk Southern train while crossing tracks in the 100 block of East First Avenue. After his death, officials spray-painted “no trespassing” on signs on both sides of the track, but “People look at them and they laugh,” Mayor Susan E. Bortz said. “They ignore them.”
“There is a bridge over the tracks about 50 yards from the site of the accident. Ms. Singer should have crossed there.”
I can’t muster any sympathy for the woman. Plenty for the child who was killed, and for the 2 children who had to witness the gruesome death of their mother and little brother, and for the train engineers, and for the police chief who had to witness it and the emergency personnel who had to come to the scene, and for the hospital personnel who had to deal with the traumatized surviving children, But not for the woman. I’m sure there are places in this country where people who don’t have a car or friends with a car, just can’t get to the grocery store for food without crossing train tracks. But that’s not the case here.
Stroller-Makers may now face a lawsuit if this was a reasonably foreseeable event?
My prayers for this family. But really, what IS IT about trains people don’t understand? They’re big, fast-moving and take a long time to stop and they can and do obliterate anything that gets in their way. Not to mention the trauma the poor engineer has to suffer just trying to do his job.
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