Another Needless Death

To stay up-to-date with the latest news related to Amtrak or train travel, I use Google Alert, which automatically sends me news items containing those key words. Pretty slick. Pretty handy. And often pretty sad … because almost every day comes news of someone hit by a train.

The great tragedy is that every single one of those deaths is avoidable. People race the train to a crossing. They drive around barriers. They’re walking on the tracks and talking on their cel phones. Or they’re committing suicide.

The most recent incident occurred yesterday in Revere, Massachusetts, and it breaks your heart. A 5-year-old boy was on his way to the store with his mother. They were waiting at a crossing — gates down, lights flashing — while a commuter train went by.

Then, just as the train passed, the mother, her 5-year-old in tow, ducked under the gate and the two of them started to dash across the two tracks, unaware that another train was coming from the opposite direction on the other side of the first train.

The mother just barely made it across, but the poor little kid was struck and killed.

According to the Boston Globe report, the mother was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital “but did not have physical injuries.”

She has the kind of injuries that never heal.