Michael DBA Expressions wrote:
It’s with a heavy heart that I have to let the MM community know that one of our own, model Evelyn Sinclair, was struck and killed by a train this evening while crossing the tracks on foot near Lynchburg, Virginia.

I met her for the first time this afternoon and we’d planned a shoot tomorrow. She went for a walk, and did not come back. We just found out about her death minutes ago, and I’m still in shock. Such a beautiful and sweet young woman, killed instantly by a train.

Boys and girls, stay the hell off the tracks.

Wow... what a sad, sudden and shocking news!

My condolences, Michael!

Udor

Michael DBA Expressions wrote:
It’s with a heavy heart that I have to let the MM community know that one of our own, model Evelyn Sinclair, MM 3896652, was struck and killed by a train this evening while crossing the tracks on foot near Lynchburg, Virginia.

I met her for the first time this afternoon and we’d planned a shoot tomorrow. She went for a walk, and did not come back. We just found out about her death minutes ago, and I’m still in shock. Such a beautiful and sweet young woman, killed instantly by a train.

Boys and girls, stay the hell off the tracks.

MoRina wrote:
Such a shame to see a talented artist leave so young.

Indeed. Such a beautiful person and soul, so talented, and hard working, so much potential, only 21 years old, gone.

Please, everyone, stay off the train tracks.

Angel House Portraits wrote:
Its hard to believe she did not know a train was coming. I live close to train tracks and you can even feel the ground vibrate. This alone should be enough even if your listening to music. They also blow a powerful horn sound you can hear a mile away.

This is such a commonly held misunderstanding that it requires comment. We all experience the passage of trains FROM BESIDE THE TRAIN. Beside the tracks, you can’t miss the noise and vibration. But all that noise and vibration exists solely to the side. Directly in front of the train, the approach of a train is almost silent. It is so very easy to hear nothing until the train is upon you. Even that powerfully loud horn does not project down the track as loudly as you might think. What’s more, trains out in the countryside travel at speeds in the 60-80 mph range and will cover the gap from a tiny spec in the distance to right beside you in seconds. A single minute inattention chimping a photo you just took will make you a pancake by the train a mile away when you took the photo.

How long do you think it might take you to climb down off the tracks if your main concern was slipping, tripping, of otherwise face planting? Fifteen seconds, maybe? In that span, the train a quarter mile away when you started will kill you.

My wife, in talking with a coworker from the Richmond office, heard that three people a month get hit by trains in that city, mostly young people wearing earbuds and watching screens. If we value our children at all, we need to do a much better job impressing upon them the truth of the danger of railroad tracks. And THAT requires making clear to the adults in their lives that all that noise and vibration from the passing of a train does not project down the tracks in front of the train where one can kill you.

Angel House Portraits wrote:
Its hard to believe she did not know a train was coming. I live close to train tracks and you can even feel the ground vibrate. This alone should be enough even if your listening to music. They also blow a powerful horn sound you can hear a mile away.

I can hear the trains in the freight yard coupling and working from at least a half mile away.  I can hear the whistle blow at the station for passenger service a mile away.  And at a friend's farm, I can hear the freight trains MILES away.  None of that is relevant and it is a mindset that will prove deadly to you if you are around rails, as it does to hundreds of people in the US every year.  If they are that easy to hear, then why are there so many fatalities?  These fatalities stretch back to long before there were walkman's, much less smartphones.

You should research the numbers.  The non-suicides that occur at crossings and along the tracks are astounding for a machine that is so big and loud.

It isn't stupid people that get killed, either.  Locally, in Valley Forge, two men were killed some years ago.  At least one had a phD.   But there is a curve in the tracks and the engineer had no chance to avoid them. 

I have to work along railroads from time to time.  We hear the trains coming, not when they are close, but when they are far away, up or down river, when we are effectively listening from the side, not from the front.  We pick up our stuff and move to the woods right away.  I do not want to file paperwork with OSHA or tell my employee's wife what happened.  Most of the time, we are near the rails for periods of minutes.  If we have a job that requires us to be there for a duration, the railroad charges us hundreds of dollars a day to have a guy from the railroad be a spotter for us.  He sits there with an air horn, on the side of the tracks, to give warning.  Once, working near an Acela line, the train was the size of a pin head when we first received warning from the spotter.  It was there in moments.  If you are in a road cut or on a bridge, you may have no place to go.

Unless there are trees at least several feet tall, growing up between the ties, consider the line active and stay off the tracks and the right of way.  There are other hazards related to trains.  You don't have to be on the rails to get killed.  And the fines are huge if the railroad cops catch you on their property.

John Silva Photography wrote:
{snip}We will probably never know what happened.{snip}
RIP Evelyn

Oh, we know what happened. Trains carry video cameras, front as well as inside. There’s video of the approach, the getaway, the east side, the north side, etc. Virginia State Police investigated thoroughly. The moral of the story: STAY THE HELL OFF THE TRACKS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION.

EDIT: in 2018, 700 pedestrians trespassing on train tracks were killed in the US, and another 700+ were injured. STAY OFF THE TRACKS!