'These girls had plenty of time to move'
Officials are at a loss to explain why two sunbathing teens were struck by a train near the Maine-New Hampshire border.
By NOEL K. GALLAGHER, Staff Writer May 29, 2008
The Associated Press
LEBANON – Two teenage girls who apparently were sunbathing on train tracks skirting the New Hampshire border were severely injured Wednesday when a train hit them, according to emergency personnel.
The train severed a leg of 13-year-old Destiny Phaneuf just below the knee, and severed a foot of 14-year-old Rachel Brown, according to York County Sheriff’s Lt. Gary Fecteau.
Both were taken by helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland and were listed in critical and serious condition, respectively, in a special care unit.
The girls were lying on the tracks next to Milton Three Ponds and did not move when the slow-moving train’s whistle blew repeatedly as it approached, Fecteau said.
The 30-car train was going about 15 mph and its operators blew the whistle as they approached the bridge section of the tracks, as they usually do on the daily run between Dover, N.H., and Ossipee, N.H.
“They saw (the girls) and blew the whistle several times,” Fecteau said, describing the conductor’s statement.
The train operators applied the emergency brakes, but were unable to stop in time, he said. “There was no movement, and it wasn’t until (the train was) upon them that they realized they were hit.”
Fecteau said the conductor called in the accident on his cell phone and Milton, N.H., police were the first on the scene. The girls were hit just a few feet from the bridge that defines the state line separating Lebanon and Milton.
Brown, who was conscious when help arrived, told responders that she and Phaneuf had been sunbathing on the railroad tracks.
Brown, whose condition was upgraded from critical to serious late Wednesday, was found on a concrete pillar just off the tracks. Phaneuf was under the train between the rails, Fecteau said.
Officials were at a loss to explain why the girls didn’t move as the train approached.
Neighbors were similarly baffled, saying that even if the girls didn’t hear the whistle because of headphones or some other reason, they should have felt the vibration of the approaching train.
While the spot is popular for fishing or jumping off the trestle into the water, it’s not a place people typically choose to sunbathe, neighbors said.
The narrow, mounded area is covered with large pieces of gravel typically used on train tracks, and some low shrubbery near the waterline.
“I don’t know what they were doing on the tracks,” said Jessica Ragucci, 22, as she held her 5-month-old son and watched police search for evidence in the water and on the tracks. “And there’s no way they didn’t feel the vibration.”
Ragucci and her neighbor, Mishelle West, who heard the train whistles and the screech of the emergency brakes, said the train always moves slowly through the area.
“That’s what I don’t understand,’’ said West, whose living room looks over the placid water behind the Milton Three Ponds dam. “These girls had plenty of time to move.”
Fecteau said there was no indication that the girls were wearing headphones or were otherwise unable to hear the train.
Several business owners in the area said they didn’t see the girls sunbathing or see the accident. Fecteau said Wednesday afternoon that no witnesses had come forward.
When officials reached the girls’ parents, he said, they thought the girls were at school.
A woman answering the phone at the home of Phaneuf’s father said he was not at home.
Officials with School Administrative District 60, which includes Lebanon, rounded up teachers and staff members at Noble Middle School Wednesday afternoon to discuss how to address the incident, said Superintendent Paul Andrade.
School officials will have a crisis team of guidance counselors ready today for students, Andrade said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll undoubtedly have some kids who are pretty upset.”
Milton Police Chief Mark McGowan said the trestle, which is about 4 feet above the water, is a popular spot for teenagers even though it is illegal to be on the railroad tracks.
People hanging out in the area, walking the tracks and particularly jumping into the water, are a “constant, constant problem,” he said.
“This is the biggest problem we have in town, as far as the train goes,” he said, adding that police give first-time offenders warnings, then cite repeat offenders for criminal trespassing. “Everyone knows they’re not supposed to be out there.”
Compounding the problem, he said, is that Lebanon does not have its own police force, leaving enforcement on the Maine side to the York County Sheriff’s Department.
The train left the scene of the accident around 2:45 p.m. More than a dozen investigators photographed the scene, took measurements and collected evidence, including a pair of pink sandals and a tote bag beside the tracks.
Three investigators used a boat to look for items in the water. Around 3:05 p.m., their work was complete.
McGowan said that in the eight years he’s been chief, only one other significant accident has happened on the tracks. In that case, a boy jumped off his dirt bike in time and was not hit.
Warren Flatau, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, D.C., said the train was operated by New Hampshire Northcoast Railroad, which also owns the tracks. New Hampshire Northcoast is one of about 500 to 600 short-line railroad operators in the nation, Flatau said.
Such an accident is not typically investigated by the Federal Railroad Administration, he said. The probes usually are done by local police and the railroad involved, he said.
New Hampshire Northcoast reported one accident to the Federal Railroad Administration between 2005 and 2007, according to public data.
Flatau said the collision underscores the need to educate the public about the dangers of railroad trespassing.
He said train engineers are usually powerless to prevent such collisions once they spot the trespassers.
“You know, they can hit the emergency brakes,” Flatau said, “but even at moderate speeds, you cannot just stop a train.”
Maine has a law against trespassing on private railroad property, said Fred Hirsch, state coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, an educational organization funded largely by the railroad industry that’s dedicated to improving rail safety.
Hirsch said Wednesday’s incident was “tragic” but the girls “were where they were not supposed to be.”
Data from the Federal Railroad Administration show that injuries to trespassers on railroads are relatively rare in Maine.
The state had one such injury last year, and no others since 2004.
Between 2003 and 2007, 10 people died on the rails in Maine, the federal statistics show.
Seven of the people who were killed were trespassers.
New Hampshire Northcoast declined to comment Wednesday afternoon when contacted by phone.
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