For More Information, to Sign the Petition to Save the Trail, and to Write Our Public Officials, Click On:http://www.SavetheTrailPetition.org
From the Baltimore Sun:
Teens Struck from Behind While Walking on Tracks,
MTA Says Deaths of 17-year-olds near Lutherville were Accidental, Video Evidence Shows
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-rail-deaths0707,0,4210758.story
This tragedy near Lutherville, where the Light Rail killed two teenagers on Sunday, points up the fact that:
Maryland has an average of nine pedestrian train fatalities every year!
(See: Pedestrian Railway Deaths Recurring Problem in Maryland)
http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/2009-editions/05-May-editions/090505-Tuesday/TrainTrespassers_CNS-UMCP.html
It's easy to see that the Purple Line doesn't belong 10’ from the Capital Crescent Trail and a few feet from homes along the Trail!
Purple Line trains would be passing in both directions every three minutes, at speeds up to 50 mph!
Hundreds of children and teens use the Trail every week to get to Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, Westland Middle School, the Jane Lawton Community Center, and to visit friends, for exercise, training, recreation, and to hang out.
Who believes that teenagers won’t "illegally" cross the tracks as they try to take the shortest route to BCC High School?
Or cross the tracks to take the shortest route to the Community Center?
Or the quickest route home?
According to experts, even fencing cannot keep young people off of train tracks. Dividing our community with the Purple Line would be an invitation to disaster.
Please Call or Write our Public Officials Now and Tell Them:
DON'T MIX TRAINS WITH KIDS!
To Send an Email, Click on:
http://www.savethetrailpetition.org/
From the Baltimore Sun:
TEENS STRUCK FROM BEHIND WHILE WALKING ON TRACKS,
MTA Says Deaths of 17-year-olds near Lutherville were Accidental, Video Evidence Shows
by Michael Dresser Baltimore Sun reporter
5:13 PM EDT, July 7, 2009
The Maryland Transit Administration has determined that the two teenagers who were killed Sunday near the Lutherville light rail station were struck from behind as they walked in the middle of the tracks with their backs to a train, an MTA spokeswoman said Tuesday.
MTA police arrived at the judgment that the deaths were accidental after viewing video from the train that struck the pair about 2:55 p.m. Sunday, spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said.
The MTA said earlier Tuesday that they believed that Connor Peterson and Kyle Patrick Wankmiller, both 17, had been lying on the tracks while two trains passed over them.
But Green said the video evidence shows the two were walking north on tracks that are usually used for southbound travel when they were run over.
At the time, the light rail system was in two-way operations on one track because another train had been damaged after it ran into a highway guardrail that apparently had been left on the northbound tracks.
Greene said the boys apparently thought the approaching train was using the other track.
"When you hear a train coming from the southern direction you expect it to be on (the northbound track)," Greene said. "It cal lull you into a false sense of security."
Greene noted that members of the public are not allowed to walk on the tracks except at designated crossing points. To walk along the tracks is considered trespassing, she said.
Still unexplained was how the operator of the train that struck the pair could have missed seeing them. Greene said the investigation is continuing.
The two teens were discovered severely injured about 3:10 p.m. after the operator and fare inspector aboard another train noticed something on the tracks and the inspector walked back to determine what it was.
Wankmiller died Sunday at St. Joseph Medical Center. Peterson died Monday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
