NEWS: Sprog hit by trolley, dies, it must be the trolley's fault!
The Rocket Scientist
Posted on Wed, Jun. 04, 2003
Hit by trolley, boy dies from head injury
By Marc Schogol
Inquirer Staff Writer
A 3-year-old Upper Darby boy throwing rocks at passing SEPTA trains
yesterday evening was clipped by one and subsequently died of head
injuries, Upper Darby police said today.
<The sprog was throwing rock at the trains. Just wonderful.>
Brandon Davis, who would have turned four next month, was injured
about 6 p.m. last night and later pronounced dead at Children's
Hospital, according to Upper Darby Detective Lt. George Rhoades.
According to Lt. Rhoades, another 4-year-old boy told police that the
two youngsters were down by the tracks throwing rocks at passing
trains.
Davis turned his back to the tracks, bent to pick up more rocks, then
stood up and as he did, a passing train clipped his head, the other
boy told police.
Two neighbors, alerted by the calls, stayed with the child until
police arrived, Lt. Rhoades said. According to Lt. Rhoades, the
stricken boy's mother had not known he was out of the house.
The boy was taken by ambulance to Children's Hospital, where he died.
According to Lt. Rhoades, SEPTA said three trains had passed through
the area at about the time of the accident, but none of the drivers
was aware of having struck a child.
Police would not disclose the names or the address of the Davis
family. "We're trying to determine when and how the child left home,"
Lt. Rhoades said.
The accident occurred along a stretch of tracks down a grassy
embankment near North State Road and the tracks of the SEPTA 69th
Street-to-Norristown train. The site is near Upper Darby's border with
West Philadelphia.
"It's a tragic event," Lt. Rhoades said. "There's a lot of danger on
those tracks."
Silar31
Scientist) wrote:
>stricken
First time I have ever seen "stricken" equated with "stupid".
Fascinating.
Jennifer
silar31 -- http://www.stranger-things.com
to contact me please ping me on the newsgroup. E-mail replies hit the bit bucket!
CF+++ TK++ TPI++++ A++++VF++++
"The best gift I can possibly give the next and succeeding generations on this
stinking mudball is the absence of my genes in it. Its a gift I give with the
utmost pride, and one I'd give a million times over had I the ability to do so" - Eric C., alt.support.childfree
WendyK
> http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/6012193.htm
>
> Posted on Wed, Jun. 04, 2003
>
> Hit by trolley, boy dies from head injury
> By Marc Schogol
> Inquirer Staff Writer
(snip)
> Two neighbors, alerted by the calls, stayed with the child until
> police arrived, Lt. Rhoades said. According to Lt. Rhoades, the
> stricken boy's mother had not known he was out of the house.
(snip)
> Police would not disclose the names or the address of the Davis
> family. "We're trying to determine when and how the child left home,"
> Lt. Rhoades said.
>
Moo to every media outlet that'll give her her 15 minutes: "But I
only turned my back for a minute..."
--
The more I know people the more I love my dogs.
Beaker
>
>A 3-year-old Upper Darby boy throwing rocks at passing SEPTA trains
>yesterday evening was clipped by one and subsequently died of head
>injuries, Upper Darby police said today.
Darwin Award nomination!
bkr
Veronique
//sniff!// I just love a happy ending!
V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
Hatter
I normally aviod "lil" thread because they seem to celebrate misery,
however,
> "It's a tragic event," Lt. Rhoades said. "There's a lot of danger on
> those tracks."
Yea a lot of danger to someone without the damn sense to get out of
the way of a moving train. You know the path they are going to be on.
They make plenty of noise. The surface they travel on "rails" gives
plenty of vibratory warning. You have to be pretty damn stupid to
decide to ignore all these obvious sign and get hit(unless you've been
caught in a tunnel or Snidely whiplash tied you to the track. And lets
look at your recreation activity, you throw rock at passing trains.
I'm sorry, but don't you have a book or radio to possibly amuse you?
Feh, sorry for your tradgedy Lady, but look on the bright side, at
least someone so damn dumb is no longer in the gene pool.
Hatter
Beaker
>
>Feh, sorry for your tradgedy Lady, but look on the bright side, at
>least someone so damn dumb is no longer in the gene pool.
Weren't it only 4? Too young to be smart. Where was its handler?
bkr,
who did lots of dumb train antics in his pupal state.
planetjm
Upper Darby area mourns tot killed by train
Police: Who was watching him?
By RAMONA SMITH
smi...@phillynews.com
Little Jahlil Straughn was afraid of the noise from the SEPTA trains
that went tearing through his Upper Darby neighborhood.
So when he and 3-year-old Brandon Davis slipped through the holes in
two fences this week to throw rocks at the trains, Jahlil "stood
back," said Upper Darby Police Lt. George Rhoades.
He didn't go up onto the State Road trestle with the pint-size
Brandon. Instead, he watched from below as a 33-ton Route 100 trolley
suddenly bore down on Brandon and - in a horrific instant Tuesday
evening - made him the first area toddler in memory to be run down by
a train.
"Jahlil said that Brandon was up by the tracks, picking up rocks. When
he stood up, a train came by, and Jahlil said it clipped him on the
back of the head," Rhoades said. The little boy died yesterday morning
at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Yesterday, parents, police and SEPTA officials said they were trying
to understand how a tot like Brandon - known to his pals as "Chunky" -
could just slip out of his home and make his way up the rough terrain
at the end of his street to the elevated track.
They know how he got onto the tracks, though. Jahlil led police
through holes in two fences between the tracks and the end of Sunshine
Road. Neighbors say the holes in the fences have been there for years.
"I've been here for eight years and that hole, it's never been fixed,"
said John Deweese, 35, who with other neighborhood men rushed out
yesterday morning to mend the fence closer to their street. Nobody
admitted ownership of the fence, said neighbors - not the township,
not SEPTA, not anybody else.
SEPTA said it wasn't sure whether it owned the other fence immediately
next to the tracks, either, but it sent a crew out yesterday to fix
it.
Transit officials were initially slow to acknowledge that a train had
struck the boy. But by mid-day yesterday, they said they had to assume
that's what happened. SEPTA said three trains had passed through the
area shortly before 6 p.m. Officials were examining those trains for
any sign they had struck anyone.
About 5:55 p.m. Tuesday, the operator of a train inbound to 69th
Street radioed that he saw children near the track. However, said
SEPTA Assistant General Manager James B. Jordan, "we have no reports
of any operator or other SEPTA personnel seeing, hearing, feeling or
noticing anything out of the ordinary."
The speed limit for trains on that stretch of track is 55 mph.
Brandon's anguished mother, Crystal Meekens, was not home yesterday at
the Sunshine Road house where she is raising seven children. Nor did
she appear last night at a memorial service where neighbors remembered
the toddler at a candlelight vigil in the street.
"She told us that she was on her computer on her front porch and
didn't realize that her son was out," said Lt. Rhoades. "She heard a
neighbor screaming that a child was hit and came running out of her
house...We are still investigating when he got out of the house, how
he got out of the house and if anyone else should have been watching
him."
Doom & Gloom Dave
> http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/6012193.htm
>
> Posted on Wed, Jun. 04, 2003
>
> Hit by trolley, boy dies from head injury
> By Marc Schogol
> Inquirer Staff Writer
>
> A 3-year-old Upper Darby boy throwing rocks at passing SEPTA trains
> yesterday evening was clipped by one and subsequently died of head
> injuries, Upper Darby police said today.
>
Rock and Roll baby!
Veronique
I think the embarrassement of trying to explain that moo let her three
year old out of her sight to play on the train tracks...well, heads
shake over thisaways.
DConnolly001
>fault!
>From: plan...@concentric.net (planetjm)
>Date: 6/5/2003 9:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <b83d6e56.03060...@posting.google.com>
>
>Wait, it gets better.....
>
>Upper Darby area mourns tot killed by train
>Police: Who was watching him?
>By RAMONA SMITH
>smi...@phillynews.com
>
>
>the Sunshine Road house where she is raising seven children. Nor did
>she appear last night at a memorial service where neighbors remembered
>the toddler at a candlelight vigil in the street.
>
>"She told us that she was on her computer on her front porch and
>didn't realize that her son was out," said Lt. Rhoades. >>>>>>
No doubt she was on a parents' newsgroup typing about how HAAAARD it is to
raise 7 keeds.
DC
Linda Causey
"planetjm" <plan...@concentric.net> wrote in message
news:b83d6e56.03060...@posting.google.com...
> Wait, it gets better.....
> "She told us that she was on her computer on her front porch and
> didn't realize that her son was out," said Lt. Rhoades. "She heard a
> neighbor screaming that a child was hit and came running out of her
> house...We are still investigating when he got out of the house, how
> he got out of the house and if anyone else should have been watching
> him."
Udoubtly trolling ascf and chiding us for being hateful, selfish and a
menace to little children that must be stopped.
--
Linda Causey
A Perfect World: making the world a better place one cartoon at a time
http://www.aperfectworld.org
Lee
>
> Upper Darby area mourns tot killed by train
> Police: Who was watching him?
> By RAMONA SMITH
> smi...@phillynews.com
>
> Little Jahlil Straughn was afraid of the noise from the SEPTA trains
> that went tearing through his Upper Darby neighborhood.
>
> So when he and 3-year-old Brandon Davis slipped through the holes in
> two fences this week to throw rocks at the trains, Jahlil "stood
> back," said Upper Darby Police Lt. George Rhoades.
>
> He didn't go up onto the State Road trestle with the pint-size
> Brandon. Instead, he watched from below as a 33-ton Route 100 trolley
> suddenly bore down on Brandon and - in a horrific instant Tuesday
> evening - made him the first area toddler in memory to be run down by
> a train.
>
> "Jahlil said that Brandon was up by the tracks, picking up rocks. When
> he stood up, a train came by, and Jahlil said it clipped him on the
> back of the head," Rhoades said. The little boy died yesterday morning
> at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
>
> Yesterday, parents, police and SEPTA officials said they were trying
> to understand how a tot like Brandon - known to his pals as "Chunky" -
> could just slip out of his home and make his way up the rough terrain
> at the end of his street to the elevated track
They're tryig to understand how? I think everyone knows how. He wasn't being
watched.
.
>
> They know how he got onto the tracks, though. Jahlil led police
> through holes in two fences between the tracks and the end of Sunshine
> Road. Neighbors say the holes in the fences have been there for years.
>
> "I've been here for eight years and that hole, it's never been fixed,"
> said John Deweese, 35, who with other neighborhood men rushed out
> yesterday morning to mend the fence closer to their street. Nobody
> admitted ownership of the fence, said neighbors - not the township,
> not SEPTA, not anybody else.
Well, here it comes. It isn't mommee's fault for neglecting to watch her
child. It's the fence owner's fault for not fixing the hole.
<SNIP>
> Brandon's anguished mother, Crystal Meekens, was not home yesterday at
> the Sunshine Road house where she is raising seven children. Nor did
> she appear last night at a memorial service where neighbors remembered
> the toddler at a candlelight vigil in the street.
>
Well, when you have an entire litter to watch, one or two are going to slip
through the cracks.
> "She told us that she was on her computer on her front porch and
> didn't realize that her son was out," said Lt. Rhoades. "She heard a
> neighbor screaming that a child was hit and came running out of her
> house...We are still investigating when he got out of the house, how
> he got out of the house and if anyone else should have been watching
> him."
If anyone else should have been watching him? You mean, aside from his
mother, who was sitting in front of a computer monitor instead of keeping an
eye on her pweshus toddler?
--
Lee
Shapieron2
>
>"She told us that she was on her computer on her front porch and
>didn't realize that her son was out," said Lt. Rhoades.
She was probably diddling herself,as Horsecock61217 talked dirty to her...
John
Implement General Directive Eighteen
circusgirl
Yup, 3 is WAY too young to be anywhere NEAR train tracks, or to know
better. This is sad.
circusgirl
circusgirl
Sigh. This is something that reminds me of an infomercial the govt
used to broadcast in the breaks during kids' tv shows when I was about
5. It concerned the new electric suburban trains in Dublin and how
they were DANGEROUS. They made veyr little noise, were fast, and the
wires could kill you too. The infomercial concerned a pair of kids who
go playing on the track and one gets eledtrocuted and ends up a
paraplegic. The message was "some adults are stupid, even if they put
holes in the fences to take a shortcut across the tracks, DON'T DO
IT". SOunds like we need to send Philly City COuncil some of the
infomercials to broadcast....
I bet those holes were there because the local population felt the
need to get to the local bar as quickly as possible. And that when
they were repaired, they were re-made.
circusgirl
Ann Amaray
>plan...@concentric.net (planetjm) wrote in message news:<b83d6e56.03060...@posting.google.com>...
>> Wait, it gets better.....
>>
>> Upper Darby area mourns tot killed by train
>> Police: Who was watching him?
>> By RAMONA SMITH
>> smi...@phillynews.com
>>
>> Little Jahlil Straughn was afraid of the noise from the SEPTA trains
>> that went tearing through his Upper Darby neighborhood.
>>
>> So when he and 3-year-old Brandon Davis slipped through the holes in
>> two fences this week to throw rocks at the trains, Jahlil "stood
>> back," said Upper Darby Police Lt. George Rhoades.
>>
And no one is commenting on how the little vandals were throwing rocks
at the train? What about the passengers on the train? Just because a
train took revenge on the rock throwers, it is a tradegy?
AA