Update on deaf girl in Texas hit by train

[88gta350]

At the risk of starting another thread gone bad like the other night, here's an update on what happened:


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/15/miss.deaf.texas/index.html

[Tharmeni]

Very tragic.

[daveklepper]

Was she tresspassing?

[88gta350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper

Was she tresspassing?

The article stated she was walking on the ROW about a foot from the rails themselves. The snowplow caught her from behind and she died from traumatic injuries.

[88gta350]

Here's the text of the article:

QUOTE:


Deaf beauty queen was text-messaging when hit by train
By Elizabeth Yuan
CNN


Wednesday, March 15, 2006; Posted: 4:59 p.m. EST (21:59 GMT)


Tara Rose McAvoy was named Miss Deaf Texas in June 2005.


(CNN) -- Deaf beauty contest winner Tara McAvoy was walking along the railroad tracks from her Austin, Texas, home to her mother's workplace, text-messaging family and friends, when a train struck her, according to the Austin Police Department.

A Massachusetts-born Texan, who liked to quote "Don't mess with Texas," the 18-year-old was going to represent the Lone Star State at the Miss Deaf America Pageant in Palm Desert, California, this July.

It was one of many pageants McAvoy had entered, "both in the hearing community and in the deaf community," said Claire Bugen, superintendent of the Texas School for the Deaf, on Wednesday. McAvoy was a 2005 graduate of the school, where she played sports and acted in theater.

"She was a beautiful, bright, young deaf woman," said Bugen.

The Austin Police Department received a 911 call from Union-Pacific, which owns the train, at 2:18 p.m. Monday, said Laura Albrecht, spokesperson for the Austin Police Department. (Watch as witnesses describe accident -- 1:33)

"Our understanding is that she text-messaged the family, and yes, the family members were going to pick her up," Albrecht added.

McAvoy was walking northbound along the railroad ties, with her back to the train as it approached, said Austin Police Department detective David Fugitt. "We have information that she was text-messaging family and friends" at the time, he added.

A horn sounded, but "they weren't able to get a response" from her, Fugitt said.

"At that point, they activated their emergency braking system, but they weren't able to stop in time."

A snowplow -- commonly referred to as "cattle-guards" for pushing items away from the tracks to avoid train damage -- was what struck McAvoy, who was estimated to be "no more than a foot" from the tracks, Fugitt said.

"The snowplow extends approximately 16 inches on each side from the train," he said, and was mounted to the front engine of the train.

McAvoy died at the scene from "multiple traumatic injuries," Fugitt said.

Fugitt said there were witnesses who had heard the horn sound and that the police department was actively seeking anyone who had seen the accident occur.

An investigation is under way with Union Pacific and the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office, Fugitt said. He said the Austin Police Department was awaiting information from Union Pacific on how fast the train, with its 24 cars and two engines, was going.

McAvoy's funeral is set for Saturday morning in Austin.

In addition to her schooling at the Texas School for the Deaf, McAvoy briefly attended the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, which is affiliated with Gallaudet University, in Washington. A profile on its Web site said McAvoy was class president, a cheerleader, on the prom committee and played basketball.

"She will be sorely missed," said Laura Loeb-Hill, director of the Miss Deaf Texas Pageant, in an e-mail Wednesday. "Tara represented Texas with dignity and pride."

[GN-Rick]

Indeed a tragic incident.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the update. Thankfully, that rules out the spectre of suicide that some had raised.

Very simply, she was where she shouldn't have been (and who among us hasn't been at one time or another [:I] ), and she was distracted. Unfortunately, in this case that combination was fatal.

Shalom,
James

[paulstecyna21]

did she have any hearing aids?

[n2mopac]

Very sad indeed, and another tragic reminder why people should never walk along the tracks. I say this as a child who attended Jr. Hight School next to RR tracks and about 1/3 of the school walked home along them (25 years ago). The school has put an end to this now.

Ron

[trainfan1221]

Its dangerous enough without an added handicap, and to be distracted by texting, which believe it or not can take all your concentration as I have found out. Its a shame this happened, and hopefully it will be the last time we have to hear about any such thing. The wonders of modern technology can also have severe consequences.

[vsmith]

OK tragic but STUPID!

She should have never placed herself in such a dangerous location!

Surprise! Trains travel in BOTH directions, I'm having a hard time understanding how someone with a disablilty knowing places themselve in dangerous circumstances, this is beginning to fall into the "Jogger-Wearing-Headphones" catagory.

Text messaging.....pure evil...sheesh, probably got all focused in on it, lost all contact to the outside world, kids do this and get sooo focused I've seen people walk off curbs into traffic and bumb into post while they were trying to text something. I can see where text messaging to a deaf person is invaluable but you dont place yourself in harms way. Its not just trespassing on the ROW, its that most ROWs are off the beaten path and it could just have easily been some whacko coming up from behind her and bada-bing bada-boom shes robbed, raped, and dead anyway.

Where are young peoples heads today? I dont get it, yes tragic, but.......

[ValleyX]

Call me coldblooded, call me callous, I'm sorry, and I am sorry for her family but what in the world was she thinking? Text messaging was probably like a godsend to her because she was deaf but she shouldn't have been on the tracks and should have been paying attention to her surroundings. I can't quite fathom it.

A friend of mine hit a girl several years ago who was with a group of young people walking on the tracks, she was, surprisingly enough, barefoot, and stepped from between the rails onto the edge of the ties. All anyone could figure was that she didn't want to step into the ballast barefoot. He had an image of that for a long time.

[BaltACD]

Railroad rights of way are private property....being there withot proper authorization is TRESSPASSING.

Walking along the tracks is TRESSPASSING.

[Tharmeni]

Trespassing...one "s"

[88gta350]

Guys, you have to rmember that to non-railfans and especially those that have never given trains a second thought, they're not going to think twice about walking on the tracks, or that trains travel in both directions or that the train wouldn't be able to stop in time, or that it would be trespassing. She probably had done it a hundred times before and nothing happen. I'm not condoning her behavior by any means, but trying to put it into context... she probably simply didn't know. Most people I talk to don't even know it's against the law to cross the tracks while the red lights are flashing. They see them as a stop sign rather than a red light.

Hopefully her death will serve a purpose by showing others the dangers of the tracks and her death will not be in vain.

Just because she didn't know, or got complacent, doesn't maker her stupid. By all accounts she was not a stupid young woman.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by paulstecyna21

did she have any hearing aids?

I dont know if she wore any, but there are some deaf who cannot benefit from hearing aids. However very few can use cohlears which are extremly expensive.

But when I read the article and realized she was "Text messaging" that right there probably signaled she was focused on the device and if that distraction is strong enough nothing could have saved her.

The other thing being a foot from the rails was a very bad thing.

There are ALOT of text messaging devices in the deaf world. Call them the visual equivilant of celluar telephones hearing people use. Blackberries are one of the best.

But unfortunately that was a bad place to be communicating.

What a tragety.

[Anonymous]

Actually, trespassing has three. [:)]

Dave

QUOTE: Originally posted by Tharmeni

Trespassing...one "s"

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 88gta350

Guys, you have to rmember that to non-railfans and especially those that have never given trains a second thought, they're not going to think twice about walking on the tracks, or that trains travel in both directions or that the train wouldn't be able to stop in time, or that it would be trespassing. She probably had done it a hundred times before and nothing happen. I'm not condoning her behavior by any means, but trying to put it into context... she probably simply didn't know. Most people I talk to don't even know it's against the law to cross the tracks while the red lights are flashing. They see them as a stop sign rather than a red light.

Hopefully her death will serve a purpose by showing others the dangers of the tracks and her death will not be in vain.

Just because she didn't know, or got complacent, doesn't maker her stupid. By all accounts she was not a stupid young woman.

Not stupid educationally, but even the smartest college students often end up Darwin Award winners through a complete lack of good judgement.

People today simply dont often consider that they might be doing something inherently dangerous like walking in RR ROW's. Its often well educated young people who are doing stupid stunts like bungie jumping off a RR bridge by tying the cords to the rails, which were severed by a passing train, say goodnight to 3 young people thru lack of good judgement.

This girl should never have put herself in such a risky condition, thats why this story so frustrates me.

Good kid, good future, stupid judgement.

I'm not angry at this girl, is the lack of thinking in kids today in general [V]

[tatans]

This is an a c c i d e n t. nothing more, nothing less. Tragic.

[coborn35]

Snowplows, commonly refered to as Cattle Guards? Not since the 1920's at least.

[vsmith]

Even if she was a few inches farther off the track, it would have passed her so close as to scare the preverbial [censored] out of her and theres a very good chance even after that that the 1+1=2 arithmetic wouldnt register and she'd sue the RR for being at fault.

I see no accident, I see negligent judgement, but NO accident. Accident implies something that was unavoidable, this wasn't. She should have known better that to be in a situation in the first place where she couldnt tell if something was coming up behind her, she shouldnt have been there at all. Why would she knowingly place herself in harms way? People dont play baseball on the highway and expect traffic to stop for them do they?