MARCH 18, 2015
CEDAR LAKE, INDIANA
A 13-year-old boy was struck and killed by a train as he
walked home from school along train tracks in northwest Indiana.
Jeffery Bellinger of Cedar Lake was struck around 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday about 200 feet north of 137th Avenue and the CSX train crossing,
according to Cedar Lake police and the Lake County coroner's office.
The boy was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:20 p.m. by the
coroner's office.
Jeffery died from blunt force trauma and his death was ruled
an accident, according to a statement from the coroner's office.
Investigators believe Jeffery, of the 8300 block of West
127th Place, was using the tracks as a shortcut home from Hanover Middle
School. He was wearing earphones and a
hoody when he was struck.
According to witnesses, the boy was walking north along the
side of the tracks with a hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head. The engineer
tried to alert the boy by blowing the train's horn, police said.
While railroad tracks have long held a cultural resonance
with Americans, featured in motion pictures, TV shows, music videos and
photography, they are private property. And they can be a deadly place.
In 2013, 476 people were killed and 432 were injured in trespassing accidents,
according to preliminary data from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The parents and the school teachers of children need to tech them to avoid railroad property. It is unfortunately a deadly place as the NTSB has said. The young teenager was trespassing and he paid with his price. Very tragic. Let the rest of the kids learn from this: Keep out and stay away from the train tracks.
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NTSB TO HOLD FORUM ON THE DANGERS OF RAILROAD TRESPASSING
MARCH 11, 2015
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WASHINGTON, DC
The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a
public forum March 24-25 on the dangers of trespassing on the railroad
right-of-way.
While railroad tracks have long held a cultural resonance
with Americans, featured in motion pictures, TV shows, music videos and
photography, they are private property. And they can be a deadly place.
In 2013, 476 people were killed and 432 were injured in trespassing accidents,
according to preliminary data from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The forum, Trains and Trespassing: Ending Tragic
Encounters, will be chaired by NTSB Board Member Robert L. Sumwalt. It will
feature speakers who have been seriously injured by trains; those whose
communities have been affected; and railroad employee assistance program
employees whose train crews have struck people on railroad property. The
forum will draw on the expertise of railroads, regulators, and researchers,
among others, to review the diversity of trespassing accidents and incidents
and look at current and future prevention strategies.
The forum will be held at the NTSB's Board Room and
Conference Center, located at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C.
However, on March 25, the forum will include a tour of Norfolk Southern’s
safety train at Union Station.
More information about the forum can be found here:
http://www.ntsb.gov/trespassing
The public can view the forum in person or by live webcast
on the NTSB's website. As soon as they are available, an agenda and webcast
details will be posted.
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