(The following story by Timothy Logue appeared on the Delaware County Daily Times website on February 28, 2010.)
DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. — For as long as there have been train tracks, teenagers have gravitated to them.
Whether to cut time from an otherwise longer walk, drink beer off the beaten path or act on a suicidal impulse, the rails provide a lot of options parents would rather not think about.
Police and the Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office agree 16-year-old Gina Gentile and 15-year-old Vanessa Dorwart should have been nowhere near the path of an Amtrak Acela train at 10:30 a.m. on a school day.
Early Saturday evening, the medical examiner’s office ruled the girls’ deaths a suicide.
The Interboro sophomores were killed instantly by a southbound Amtrak Acela train as another friend stood nearby. In a split second, two lives ended, a third was traumatized, and families and classmates were left inconsolable.
“Everyone is still in shock and trying to deal with what happened,” said Norwood Police Chief Mark DelVecchio. “It’s a sad day for the Interboro School District and it’s a sad day for the people of Norwood.”
While warning signs, fences, gates, flashing devices and, above all, common sense deter most from walking along or illegally crossing the tracks, Amtrak and SEPTA officials said there will always be a percentage who decide to put themselves in harm’s way.
“No matter how many engineering solutions are used to minimize the risk or how much enforcement or how many public awareness campaigns, there are still going to be some people who choose to go where they’re not supposed to be,” said Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm.
“And in instances when people are intent on taking their own lives, it’s going to be that much more difficult to deliver the message.”
Kulm said train deaths are disturbing not only to family, friends and witnesses on the ground but also to railroad employees.
“The locomotive engineer often sees the person on the tracks and knows there is nothing he can do to stop the train in time,” he said. “Then our crew members have to get off the train and see what happened, which means they are among the first to see the results. Then you have the passengers who learn of the traumatic nature of what occurred.”
Jim Fox, SEPTA’s director of System Safety, said incidents like Thursday’s have ended careers.
“It’s bad enough what happened to those teenagers, but a lot of people forget there are also employees involved who are going about their everyday jobs,” he said. “Some can overcome the trauma and some can never get over it. And there are a few who never become comfortable again and leave the job.”
Before Amtrak train No. 2151 continued on to Washington, D.C., some two hours and 15 minutes after the accident, Kulm said crew members were given the opportunity to leave the train in favor of relief workers. Counseling was also made available through the company’s employee assistance program.
Acela trains have a top speed of 150 mph, though they travel closer to 100-110 mph in the Philadelphia area. Regional SEPTA trains average between 45-60 mph and reach speeds of up to 90 mph near the airport and northern Delaware.
While some would like to make railroad tracks more difficult to reach for the average trespasser, Fox said there has to be a balance.
“You are talking about thousands of miles of track that require a lot of maintenance work,” he said. “If it was all fenced in, you could end up pinching people and make it difficult to clear the track.
“There are also times when we have to evacuate in an emergency situation. That could mean a six-car train with up to 200 people per car, and the last thing we want to do is box them in.
“Sometimes, the cure can be worse than the current situation.”
Prior to Thursday, the Federal Railway Association reported 16 “trespasser deaths” in Pennsylvania since 2006 involving Amtrak trains. Five occurred in Delaware County, including the Aug. 1, 2009 death of a Media man who attempted to climb a fence and cross the tracks at the Norwood Station. The figure does not account for employee deaths or highway/rail incidents.
In 2009, SEPTA regional trains were involved in seven fatalities. Three of the deaths involved trespassers, three were ruled suicides and the other involved a track inspector. Five others were killed by subway or elevated trains.
“You would love to say we can prevent these incidents from ever happening again,” Fox said, “but history tells us that’s not true.”
Amtrak and SEPTA employees conduct regular public safety campaigns and SEPTA also performs “safety blitzes” at stations where trespassing, fence jumping and other illegal practices have been reported.
In addition to literature and reminders, it is not uncommon for SEPTA police officers to issue citations on the spot if they witness illegal behavior.
While Fox said SEPTA engineers make a call to the control center every time they see someone in the track area, the trespassers are usually long gone by the time police arrive at the scene.
DelVecchio said his officers issue warnings and citations and even call parents on occasion if they catch a young person on the tracks.
“It’s always a concern and a danger to us,” he said. “Unfortunately, we saw what that danger is (Thursday).”
Fox said the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration are working with an independent agency to study the phenomena of railroad suicides and how they can be prevented.
Estimates on the number of suicides on U.S. railroads vary but the number is believed to be as high as 300 per year.