Last August my daughter's best friend (they were 21 at the time) was riding her bike to her grandmother's house.  The route was through country sideroads with the exception of one busy section of a northbound road as the east-west concession made a bit of a jog.  It was a bright day, in the middle of the afternoon.  A pickup truck hit my daughter's friend from behind.  That she was not wearing a helmet was foolish, but it would have made no difference.  Her injuries were severe. She died at the scene.  

None of us will ever be quite the same.  I cry over it still; so does my daughter.

My heart goes out to the family of this girl who likely never knew what hit her.   It is one thing to say goodbye to those who have lived a full life.  It is quite something else to say goodbye to someone who has just begun theirs.

Oh gosh Baylacey ... so sad to hear of your daughter's friend's death - a beautiful summer day, sublimely heading for grandma's house, and then gone.  You are certainly right - none are ever the same again after such an event.  The world has a different feel to it.

It is indeed hard to imagine how the family of the girl hit by the train must feel - overwhelming shock & grief, with some measure of anger I imagine, for walking unaware on the tracks - which must just make it so much harder.   And I feel for her friend, walking along with her - a horrible event to experience and live with.

A railway train, or LRT?  I've never heard of anyone getting hit by a train here, nor do I know of people walking along tracks, they tend to be along industrial areas.

I have heard of many people getting hit by an LRT (no one I know, thank goodness!). Sometimes it's racing in a car to not have to stop, sometimes it's running under the bars so not to have to wait 15 minutes for the next one.  There was also at least one suicide.

I've had a few friends who died young.  We had all drifted apart due to moving to different cities, but it was still hard to completely process.  Nothing to really change behaviours though.  One just collapsed while playing baseball, the other like to hang out on a roof and fell off (no drugs or alcohol).

Thoughts are with you and yours and the whole community.

It was a Saturday night, in Feb. 1983. He was 16 - a junior, star of the basketball team. He lit up the court, a player and person with charisma. It was a car accident. Strange how much after all these years you remember.
RIP Dave Honkus

The only other loss of a peer was far more traumatic. It was a suicide. Everyone knew that, but the newspapers never said it and all the adults wanted to leave it in silence... I recall us kids wanting to scream at hearing talk of "his death" wanting/needing to hear "suicide"... Kids said they tried to talk to their parents and when they says that s word, their parents went, "now we do not know that" and it silenced the conversation. Or they just knew it was not something they wanted to talk about... Some parents kept calling it "his accident" and I recall thinking "how is it an accident to write a note and pout a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger?"
They brought in people to talk to students thank goodness.

I hope those who feel the need to talk have those they can do it with as they mourn the tragic death of this young woman.

chemgal - it's a regular diesel train - double level  commuter cars - big, loud - hard to miss.   From our home we often hear them lay on the horn, but I don't recall noticing that in particular today - just the emergency vehicles racing up the street.

Most of us parents around here have had issues with teens crossing the tracks - we had the CN police show up at our door years ago - our son was fined for crossing the tracks - his rationale was that, well, he was hobbling about on crutches with a broken ankle & it was a shorter way to get to his friend's place & school.   Does the word stupid come to mind???   Adolescent sense of  immortality.

My husband grew up in this area too - and sometimes walked the train trestle to get across the river to school - he claims they always knew the train schedule & checked carefully for traffic ... and had good luck I'd say.

too true SG - accidents are one thing, suicide quite another.  One high school here in our city  has had 3 suicides in the past few months - devastating.  But only recently publicized.  It's so very important to acknowledge.   

I think our school board has pretty good critical incident supports available - no doubt the teams will be at school tomorrow, and for the coming week or so.  Unless it was a kid from the nearby private school - not sure what resources they would mobilize.   No doubt there will be outpourings of anguish.

I don't remember any of my close friends or classmates being dying (violently, or otherwise) when I was a teen.  We lived in a railway community. I lived on the 'wrong' side of 16 sets of tracks and crossed them daily to reach the school, church, post office or store, as well as to hang out with my friends.  I climbed through freight trains that blocked the crossing.  And I walked for miles up the tracks for swimming or picking blueberries, or down the tracks to reach a nice little trout stream.  Were we careful? or lucky?   One thing, other than the sounds of the trains that we learned to listen for, it was quiet.  We didn't have music, or cell phones, or other distractions.  And we watched out for each other.

My children as teens, young adults, have lost friends.  A tragic car accident a few weeks before graduation time - it seemed to make an impression.  My kids were very careful not to drink and drive themselves, or to get into a car with a driver who had been drinking.  Many times, I've driven one or the other of my young adult offspring downtown to pick up their car before church from where they left it safely in a parking area the night before.  

One of my daughter's friends committed suicide -- gave a big 'good-bye' party at his home while his parents were away, and after most of the crowd had left, he excused himself from his three closest friends, went into a bedroom and shot himself.  I knew his mother (not well).  They were nice people.  It came as a shock.  But the other kids said that they knew he was depressed, and they had wondered what the big party was all about.

A few years later,  another young adult disappeared.  His friends searched for him for days - phoning people he might know, walking the roads around town looking in ditches, asking questions.  He was found by the police in the basement of a house that had recently been vacanted.  Official cause of death:  overdose.   More likely: murder by a known drug dealer.  

Sad.  Sad.  Did the world change so much between my generation and my children's?  And if so, what will it be like for my grandchildren growing up now?   Or was it the difference between my growing up in a small village with a small circle of acquaintances who knew each other well, and my kids growing up in the city and knowing so many more but perhaps not as closely?  

A couple of tourists, a man and a woman, were killed walking along the train tracks near my home town about a week ago.  They were about 5 miles out a no one has any idea what they were doing walking on the train tracks or why they didn't notice a freight train coming at them.

Hi All,

Having grown up in very close proximity to heavily used train traffic I'm surprised that these kind of incidents don't happen more often.

When I was a teen (last Century) we didn't have the musical technology so we didn't have any noise that an oncoming train needed to compete with.

One of the best green spaces was a gore (triangular park like area) that was hemmed in by the CNR's Toronto - Windsor line, the old but still used TH&B line and another CNR line that was for freight trains only.

This was popular green space in my neighbourhood, which also had a park, simply because there were not a lot of adults about who would put an stop to teen nonsense.

It would be surpisingly easy to get hit by a freight train.  First, they only use the whistle if they see something on the track or if they are approaching a level crossing.  The couple 5 miles out, unless they were seen, wouldn't get the benefit of a whistle.  If the weather is inclement (rain or fog) they would be difficult to see early enough to warn.  Most rail lines are not solitary if they are a heavily travelled corridor and some folks simply miss the fact that the train they need to worry about is the one that they are sharing tracks with.

The town of Paris, Ontario experienced the death of a teen who was hit by some arm of some kind on a train and not the train itself.  So even standing back from the track a ways may not be safe.

Condolences go out to the family and friends and the wider community.

Grace and peace to you.

John

We were taught to stand well back from moving trains - at least 10 or 15 feet, more if the train were outside the yard and moving fast.   And never, ever, never allow yourelf to be caught between two moving trains.   My father impressed upon our young minds that a fast moving train creates its own slip-stream that can pull you under if you are not careful.  I never stood close enough to find out if this was true or just a precautionary folk-tale.

I think kids in my village were taught about trains the way kids living on city streets or near highways are taught about traffic.  

what a senseless tragedy and yet as others have said, I surprised it doesn't happen more often.

We walked train tracks as kids, just for something to do.  I have walked over bridges on them.  Would I have jumped?  who knows.

i always see fences cut along the tracks, for someone to get through.

i think though, if the school and the rail company knew it was a cut through by kids there was some onus to control it.  Also some issue for the parents to control access.   everyone knew it happened and yet no one stopped it???  Someone should have taken steps

Hell, one parent a day standing there during the commute to school would have stopped it

We periodically have people hit by trains here in London. Part of the problem being that the damn tracks cut right through downtown with level crossings on several major streets. The city can be effectively cut in half when a long, slow train is going through and both drivers and pedestrians tend to get impatient and do stupid things.

In my high school days at Eastwood Collegiate in Kitchener, ON, the big safety issue was kids crossing Weber St. E. to smoke in the parking lot across the street (no smoking on school property). There was a more or less blind curve just before the school and drivers didn't slow down coming around it. There was a pedestrian light on the curve (ie. could see clearly both ways) but the kids were in too big a hurry to go up and use it. One of my classmates was hit (mercifully she lived with just a broken limb or some such injury) but that incident didn't seem to have any effect. Nicotine and socializing trumped safety every time.

Mendalla

the death I recall from high school happened when I was in grade 10.

Tim was reffing a hockey game between firemen and police. He got hit in the head by a puck (no helmet) Had a headache after the game went to sleep. His mom a nurse checked on him. He was dead by morning.

Seemed such a senseless waste of a young life.

I know a family who has tragically lost two of their children. Their son was 16 when he was killed in a car accident. Five years later their daughter, aged 27, died suddenly from a mis-diagnosed blood clot. I cannot imagine losing even one child, let alone two. Their daughter was a good friend of mine and was the first in my peer group to die and it affected me profoundly - taught me to hold onto my friendships more closely.

At this point, we don't have any trains around here, so people can along the train tracks without any fear of being hit. There is, however, talk of bringing in a commuter rail service, so this could change.

What a sad thread - so many losses!

I experienced some losses of children and young adults.

cousin age 21 in a drunk driver accident (the other driver was drunk)

cousin 28 died from spousal abuse

school friend just disappeared, no one told us she had died but she was obvioulsy losing way too much weight.  Now I wonder whether she had anorexia or a serious illness.  Her sister wouldn't respond to anyone's questions

neighbor child died of heart disease of some sort.

several teen/young adult vehicle accidents (mostly they were drinking or 'playing' with their cars - racing etc.  One hit the side of a train in the dark.

My brother used to play chicken on the train tracks nearby.  Yes, he knew it was dangerous, yes I told him he shouldn't do it.  Lots of the boys used to gather to play 'last one across the tracks' but I don't recall anyone getting hurt.

Lack of attention is often a big factor in accidents it seems.  People walk out into traffic because they are texting or listening to music. 

(Hopefully!) - Here's a video to remind us all to PAY ATTENTION!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v+KHmF7_bNHao0

Hi Kay - your video link has an error in it as posted ... could you please edit when you have a minute?  Thanks - I'm curious.

Yes - there are a lot of incidents - seems many here have been touched by teen/young adult deaths - illness, accidents, misadventures, suicides, drinking & drugs - adolescence can be such a perilous time.  I'm reminded of wisdom Judds posted quite a long while ago - "keep 'em alive 'til they're 25" being the gist of it - it certainly stuck in my mind.   Sadly, it's not always possible to protect the kids from themselves, despite best efforts.

Lastpointe - indeed there is fencing along the tracks - but it's rusty, rickety, and cut in many places (as you also noted) - and frequently repaired.  The railroad is actually in the process of replacing it with much higher, heavy duty fencing - they'd almost reached the point where this accident took place, but have a much longer span to go.  It is a well patrolled stretch, with many kids be cautioned & fined.  A security car was at the site today - I imagine in anticipation of friends visiting the scene. 

Sorry - I'll try again!

What a sad story, and such a sad loss of this young girl for her family, her friends, and her community (as well as the stories that others have shared here).

I live in a small community, but even so, at one time there were 4 railroad crossings (now only 2) . . . 2 right in the town itself, one at a small section of highway between residential areas, and one on an old road on a subdivision located somewhat away from the actual town.  I don't remember ever knowing or hearing about any deaths on any of them.  But we have had major losses of many tragic highway or local accidents where teens lost their lives over the years.

Kids in my youth group went to school with the girl in Clarkson, though none were close friends.  Carolla - that must have been an awful time with it so close to your home.  Kids are invincible and that has always been true, I think.  But Rev John mentions the ipods and headphones, and I think that is a big deal these days - they can't hear and don't even try to pay attention.  Which, for my kid, usually gets her in trouble, but not dead.

I remember a death from meningitis I think - I was 11, she was 13 and we were all rollerskating on a class trip.  That was horrible for all, and especially the teacher who was doing CPR.  I think I learned empathy that day.  My dad officiated at her funeral.

I remember a 16 year old on his motorcycle.  His uncle and cousins were the firefighters who responded, and my dad was too. I was about 18. 

My brother's friend died unexpectedly at 18 and there were many questions, but it was decided that it was a medical issue.

I also lived pretty in the area where Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French lived and died.  That cast a pall over our carefree years.

My husband who was a wee bit less well behaved than I knows one who died on the tracks, stoned.  One who was shot (yes - shot by an old guy) for trespassing (not much more than hopping fences to get home).  That was a bit of an outrage and resulted in not guilty b/c insane verdict.  In a smaller town, the kids were known but not necessarily friends.

Chemgal - I think there are more deaths on the tracks than we hear about b/c it is often unreported suicide.  It shows up more often now than it used to because the taboo on reporting suicide seems to have vanished.  I am bothered that usually results in frustration by people not getting home on time, rather than dismay over a sad death.

Just by way of update - I drove along Queen st last weekend - the great high fence is now fully completed ...