Student hit by VRE train; advice for parents of classmates?

[Anonymous]

Teach your child not to "hike" on rail tracks, for starters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad for all, including the train operator who hit a child through no fault of his or her own. We should all take a lesson from this and not walk on tracks. You cannot hear a train approach within enough time to react and the train does not have enough time to stop when the operator sees you.

I thought you can feel the train on the tracks at least 1 mile out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tribute site is https://www.instagram.com/reyhan.memorial/

be careful with the "gofundme" page. Be sure the money is going where it says. Sometimes "friends" set them up and the family does not get the donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad for all, including the train operator who hit a child through no fault of his or her own. We should all take a lesson from this and not walk on tracks. You cannot hear a train approach within enough time to react and the train does not have enough time to stop when the operator sees you.

I thought you can feel the train on the tracks at least 1 mile out?

Pp above is right. You can't hear a train soon enough. I read a story in the post about it about a year ago. Also people don't account for the width of the train.

[Anonymous]

They should build a pedestrian bridge and dedicate org to her. I can see the attraction to cross there and bridge looked short

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad for all, including the train operator who hit a child through no fault of his or her own. We should all take a lesson from this and not walk on tracks. You cannot hear a train approach within enough time to react and the train does not have enough time to stop when the operator sees you.

I thought you can feel the train on the tracks at least 1 mile out?

It can take a train a mile to stop (or at least that's what I was always told). I grew up in the Midwest around a lot of freight trains.

[Anonymous]

This is heartbreaking.

[Anonymous]

No it's not. It's common sense to not hike on active tracks. Survival of the fittest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should build a pedestrian bridge and dedicate org to her. I can see the attraction to cross there and bridge looked short

This seems like a productive idea. I'm not familiar with the area, is there a trail they were following?

[Anonymous]

This breaks my heart. I live in the area and always warn my teenages not to play near the tracks.

[Anonymous]

I hope the train company provides a lot of counseling support to the conductor and the other employees that tried to administer first aid to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should build a pedestrian bridge and dedicate org to her. I can see the attraction to cross there and bridge looked short

This seems like a productive idea. I'm not familiar with the area, is there a trail they were following?

They were at Hemlock Overlook Regional Park.

https://www.novaparks.com/parks/hemlock-overlook-regional-park

The trail they were following (upper left corner of map) does not include crossing the railroad bridge.

https://www.novaparks.com/sites/default/files/maps/HemlockMap.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the train company provides a lot of counseling support to the conductor and the other employees that tried to administer first aid to her.

I remember reading an article not too long ago about how these incidents impact the train conductors. Once conductor in NYC was unfortunate enough to have it happen twice.
It is such a tragedy all around. The victim's family lost a child and the poor conductor will never be able to unsee or undo what was done.

Just awful.