Messenger Report - Teenager Dies Under Train

TEENAGER DIES UNDER TRAIN

By LEEJ. KAHRS & LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writers

GEORGIA — Abraham Patry, 14, of Fairfax, was killed at about 10 a.m. Friday when a New England Central Railroad (NECR) train hit him on the tracks approximately one quarter-mile north of the Skunk Hill Road rail crossing.

At the scene, Vermont State Police Lt. Brian Miller said, “Indications are that it may have been a suicide. Indications are that he was alone."

Charlie Moore, regional vice president for Rail America, parent company of NECR was shocked when contacted Friday morning.

"What a tragedy," he said. "What a tragedy."

A Vermont State Police press release issued late Friday afternoon stated that the train was traveling southbound from St. Albans at about 35 mph on an uphill grade when the boy was struck.

Skunk Hill Road is near Exit 18 and runs parallel with Interstate 89, providing access to the Georgia Dairy Industrial Park.

The train was en route to Burlington with a load of wood chips bound for the electric-generating plant there, according to NECR employee Alan Laroche.

Investigators were still on the scene Friday afternoon, and Miller said it would be "several hours" before the body was removed from the tracks.
The Georgia Fire Department, Vermont State Police, NECR officials, and AmCare Ambulance responded to the scene.

Moore said the train crew noticed something lying across the tracks, and when they realized the object was a person, they put the tram into emergency mode.

The train whistle was sounded, but the individual did not move. The train did not come to a complete stop until long after the impact. Vermont State Police also confirmed this information.

Moore said a train in emergency mode travels hundreds of feet before it stops, and the engineer, obviously, cannot swerve to avoid anything.

"It's not like putting the brakes on in your car," Moore said.

Rail officials locally have worked diligently to stress safety issues, but sometimes to no avail.

In 1996, a Milton man narrowly escaped injury when his pickup truck was hit by a train at the St. Albans Town Industrial Park access road crossing.
Police said the man failed to stop at a posted stop sign and that the Vermonter passenger train pushed his pickup off the east side of the tracks. The vehicle was a total loss, and police said the motorist was fortunate to escape serious injury since he had not been wearing a seat belt.

Moore said NECR would conduct an in-depth, internal probe into the teenager's death that will include cooperation with police and an inspection of all equipment to make sure everything on the train worked properly.

"But it did," Moore said. "I heard it all as that train was leaving here (St. Albans City) this morning."

Moore emphasized that NECR has protocols such as the Operation Lifesaver Program in place to keep trespassers off railroad property and tracks and to educate the public about railroad safety. He once again urged people not to walk on tracks.

"It's not a playground, for God's sake," he said. "How would you like to be an engineer sitting in that train and notice at the last minute that there's a body laying on the rail?"

Trains are part of the region's history with St. Albans known as The Railroad City because of its late 19"1 century and early 20"1 century prominence as a rail town employing more than 1,000 workers.

Tragedy has been part of that history too.

More than 68 years have passed since the worst train accident in Franklin County occurred. On June 24, 1937, six Central Vermont Railway section hands were ground to death by the Montrealer, a passenger train providing service between Montreal from New York.

Newspaper accounts show that Montreal engineer Harry Palmer, the only eyewitness, said the men were sitting on the tracks a hundred yards north of the Jewett Ave crossing, where the track straightens after a curve. He saw them too late. They never saw him.