(The following story by Patrick Kane appeared on the Progress-Index website on June 3.)
WAVERLY, Va. — Two of Virginia’s three train fatalities this year have occurred in the Tri-City area, and those working to safeguard the public are hoping the tally slows soon. The most recent, Malcolm Pezzano of Petersburg, died Sunday afternoon when struck by a Norfolk Southern train.
“We’re already above 50 percent of … the whole year of 2007,” said Melvin C. Jones, executive director of Operation Lifesaver Virginia. Three people trespassing on train tracks have died as of June 1, compared to five deaths last year. Sunday afternoon, Pezzano, 16, was struck and instantly killed when crossing train tracks between U.S. Route 460 and Railroad Avenue in Waverly.
The tiny town is set along Route 460, which was built in the 1920s parallel to the rail line between Norfolk and Roanoke. The teen had recently moved to Petersburg after living in Waverly for some time, police said. A call to Norfolk Southern for more information on the incident was not returned by press time.
Cliff Davis, spokesman for the Petersburg Public Schools, identified Pezzano as an eighth-grader at Vernon Johns Middle School. Counselors and others were available at the school today.
“We had our crisis team there today to talk with any students or staff who felt the need,” Davis said.
Pezzano lived in the 1900 block of Chuckatuck Avenue, police said. Funeral information was not yet available.
Jones said two others have died on tracks in Virginia this year. Since they are owned by the railroad companies, they are classified by the Federal Railroad Administration as trespassing deaths. Rebecca J. West, 56, died on tracks near Petersburg Amtrak Station in Ettrick. A pedestrian, identified as Donald E. Kinney by WSLS TV in Roanoke, died April 8 in Abingdon.
For Jones, the quick pace of train deaths this year is troubling. Part of the problem is that people in railway towns use tracks as shortcuts, rather than going to safer road grade crossings.
“We’re going to have to work harder to try to get the message out to try to prevent these casualties from occurring. If they’ll listen, we will tell them the message of how to be safe,” he said.
Jones has talked with Petersburg school officials about hosting safety meetings for students, a conversation he struck up after a trespassing Petersburg High School student was struck and injured. That accident occurred last fall on Johnson Road near the school.
A recently-released FRA study indicated that Virginia has low rates of deaths compared to population and the miles of tracks across the Old Dominion.
Is there an “average” train fatality? According to the FRA, it’s a 38-year-old white man who is on drugs or drunk. Of 935 deaths, 466 victims were people walking or stopped across tracks.
Enormous and weighing many tons, trains move down tracks faster than they appear to be.
“It’s their highway just like the public streets are ours. They just can’t stop quick enough to stop striking someone whose in harm’s way,” Jones said. This July, Operation Lifesaver will run a three-hour safety train trip from Roanoke to Lynchburg featuring a camera system so visiting students can see what the conductor sees.
“It does make you think when you see what he sees,” Jones said.