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Little kid hit, killed by train in Revere
By adamg on Sun, 05/25/2008 - 4:14pm
Stephen Garbarino, 5, hit by a commuter train on Oak Island Road this afternoon, according to the Suffolk County DA's office.
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Comments
Whose at fault?
Notably it was the kid’s mother who led her two sons under the closed crossing gate and across the tracks, in front of an oncoming train.
Some reports have tried to spin this as trains going too fast, or their danger to kids. Rather it seems murderously incompetent parenting is the issue.
How a train, or for that matter any vehicle, can be held responsible for folks intentionally avoiding whistles, bells, flashing lights, and blocking gates to dart into their path is beyond me.
My condolences go out to the crew of the train, and those who knew the child.
Um, no.
The crossing gates were down at the time, but the boy may have thought it was safe to cross because a southbound train had passed the crossing moments before the northbound train arrived, said Pesaturo.
bostonherald.com/...articleid=1096377
I don't see any "spin"...
spin? rip Stephen Garbarino
news.bostonherald.com.../2008_05_27_Revere_story/
"It's horrible," Kathy Hartman said of the accident, adding that she thinks trains go too fast through the intersection.
thedailyitemoflynn.com...2008/05/27/news/news01.txt
Hartman said that neighbors have complained about the tracks for years, as the gates often malfunction and stay down well after the train has passed. The MBTA has said that everything was working correctly when the accident occurred, but Hartman argues that past problems may have lead to the children's belief that the train had passed and it was ok to cross.
"These (gates don't work)," said an angry Hartman as news crews gathered Monday afternoon. "Sometimes they go up and stay up for four or five hours, other times they stay down and won't go back up. We have bitched about this to the city, the state and the MBTA for years now, and now it has cost this nice little boy his life."
Parent Ignores Basic Train Track Safety = Kid dies
The truth about trains: Trains are VERY noisy. They have big lights. They run on tracks, so they don't weave around.
Ignoring the crossing gates is hazardous. Crossing with small children? Concerned that the gates aren't working? LOOK BOTH WAYS!
Basic sesame street skill set here - too bad this family thinks it can cross by just wading in front of an oncoming vehicle like it is a city street in Vietnam or in front of a housing project.
Oh, but she might have had to interrupt her cel phone conversation to pay attention to her immediate surroundings, no?
What cost the kid his life? His mother was either blind and deaf, or a prime example of natural selection in action. Blame the MBTA and everybody else all you want, but the kids died because the parent didn't do some pretty basic stuff.
You got so many thing about this story wrong
The mother was not there when the accident happened. Faux news got it so wrong. He was riding his bike after some older boys who encouraged him to ride over the tracks as they did. The south bound train is very hidden behind a raise and some houses, and the noise of it's approach was covered by the north bound train.
But most importantly HIS MOTHER WAS NOT THERE. HE WAS WITH A GROUP OF OTHER BOYS!!
That makes it better? How?
That makes it better?
How?
SHAME ON YOU. HAVE SOME
SHAME ON YOU. HAVE SOME SYMPATHY. REGARDLESS OF WHAT "U" BELIEVE IS RIGHT AND WRONG, A MOTHER LOST A SON. DON'T YOU THING SHE'LL LIVE WITH THAT LOSS THE REST OF HER LIFE. KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELF.
So?
How are the rest of us going to learn not to repeat this accident if we don't discuss how it happened?
Use good judgment that's how
Use good judgment that's how you do it. Not bash a mother for making a bad one. That's how
You make good judgment calls
You make good judgment calls when it comes to your children, not judge others who make bad judgment calls. That's how
Bethpage gate malfunction
I was tricked by the gates malfunction in the Bethpage crossing railroad that goes through Broadway and Stewart Ave.
There was less than a minute between life and DEATH. I still can't believe That I am still alive. It was 8:30 am on June 30,2008 when I was on my way to work ( A route I usually don't take between Stewart Ave and Broadway) when the gates went down ,I stopped like the rest of the drivers, the train passed, the gates were lifted again I started proceeding and here I am The gate went down on my car and I was caught in the middle of the track, I failed to back up so my only chance was to step hard on the gas to go forward, and the minute I passed over the track another train passed. please address this issue to whoever in charge to avoid someone getting hurt. I think God is watching over me, next time someone wouldn't be as lucky
Thanks
steven
First of all. Steven was four. I saw it. His mother was not there with him at the time. He and his friends were going to the corner store with one of the child's fathers. The southbound train went by and three of the children including Steven went across the tracks on their bikes. Steven was hit by the northbound train. Also, his brother was not one of the children to cross the tracks.
what kind of insensitive
what kind of insensitive human(i can not use a different word) are you? when a mother just went through a horrible accident that took her sons life. have some respect
Stephen - I live on that street
The mother was not with him. She was getting ready to go to the store in her car. He was playing with some of the children who had just gotten out of school for the day. The oldest child in the group was ten!
Let me repeat that, HIS MOTHER was not there.
mother
"Garbarino's mother, Sherry, was preparing to accompany the children not far behind the group and came running when she heard the train's whistle, only to find that her son had not made it across the tracks."
thedailyitemoflynn.com/.../news/news01.txt
out of school?
It happened on Sunday...
Impossible
This happened over the weekend, no one was in School. If you people do not know what you are talking about you should not open your mouths, any of you. Unless you know for a fact what happened, which is not obviously the case. It was an accident, accidents happen, THATS WHY THEY ARE CALLED ACCIDENTS!!!!!!!!!!! It was not the mothers fault even if she was there
I have heard from neighbors
I have heard from neighbors and spectators that the Mom was not present when the child was hit by the train. Why is the news media making it sound like she was present? What's the truth behind this story?
SLOW THE TRAINS! SAVE A LIFE!
While the MBTA may not have been libel for this accident doesn't mean that they don't have to change some things. I grew up in this neighborhood and have witnessed a few very close calls on these tracks. These trains are friggin scary. I thought how funny it is that they say the trains always blow their whistles while going through the neighborhood because they never have before Sunday. It seems like a show for the media camped at the tracks. Maybe they did when they saw the boys on the tracks but they would never be able to prevent an accident by actually using their brakes because they are traveling too fast. Would it really kill business to slow down while approaching this neighborhood. People in the past have gotten their cars and feet stuck in the tracks and only made it to safety through the help of the people of this community.
You can't blame this poor mother. I am sure she wants to throw herself in front of a train. Her baby is gone. The boys should not have crossed while the gates were down they should have waited. The five year old was just being an unaware kid. This is like telling your kids never to run into the street after a ball, but kids still do and die from this too. So when it comes down to the tendencies of kids and speeding trains maybe it's time to slow the trains down. WHY NOT!
Because trains, cars, and
Because trains, cars, and all other vehicles shouldn’t be limited to 5 MPH because some kids can’t escape the Darwin Awards.
You're a real peach. This
You're a real peach. This neighborhood was there long before that train. The train should be at the mercy of the neighborhood not the other way around. No one said 5 mph but how about a safe 30 or 40 mph and how about when there are two trains passing one another both going about 20mph. That would be so horrible. And who are you the bloody train conductor or just a bitter passenger who thinks the train makes to many stops along your route to work anyway. Poor You.
I sincerly doubt it
You're a real peach. This neighborhood was there long before that train.
That would be highly inconsistent with the development patterns of the entire region. You sound like the anti-green line extension group that screams about "taking back yards" that never belonged to people in the first place, for a project that has been in the works off and on for up to 61 years.
Maybe service stopped for a time, but I doubt that as well.
The bottom line is that somebody living near a train crossing didn't properly supervise a young child, or teach them about trains (if they were even old enough to understand). It doesn't work to outsource that supervision to ten year old kids, either. Even slow trains won't help that because if an unsupervised child who is too young and untrained doesn't get hit by a train, the kid will get hit by a car on a busy road or go in a pool or find some other hazard while said parent isn't bothering to pay attention. Or, maybe, play little games under the slow-moving trains ... (seen it as a kid!)
There was a near-accident in North Billerica one day that I took the train to Lowell because a parent was sitting on a bench talking on the phone while her preschool children played near the tracks. The train was going really slow then, but that only meant that the conductor could jump off and grab the children.
Eastern Railroad built in 1838
According to the Revere historical society, the Eastern Railroad (now the MBTA Newburyport/Rockport line) was built in 1838. Is this part of Revere really older than that? I doubt it.
Yes there are houses that
Yes there are houses that are older then this railroad. This was a cottage beach community. Futhermore, I am sure the trains were not running at 70 plus mph back then and isn't that the point. I was not saying that we need to "take back the back yards" or even get rid of the train here (i don't know how many hippies grew up in Revere, I think it's just guidos here). My point was the train needs to be slower at this point in Oak Island. You know nothing of this part of the city. This neighborhood is called an island because it is surrounded by marsh and the only road in goes right over these tracks. Please I would like to know how many of you with negative comments about the mother's bad parenting are just heartless disgruntled commuters. In the end all your comments are saying is that it is too bad but you don't care to prevent accidents by slowing down the trains because that may add 2 minutes to your commutes. You're sad.
It's a horrible ACCIDENT
I find it so simple and easy for those who want to point fingers and criticize to do so. We all can sit back and say "I wouldn't have done that", or "where was so and so, I wouldn't have let that happen". Accidents happen in a blink of an eye. And they're ACCIDENTS. No one intentionally wants these things to happen or does things to bring them on.
There is a real issue in my mind with commuter rail trains being so open and exposed in the community. There needs to be better protection for the residents of any community that lives along those train lines. As well as there needs to be a speed limit. I do belive that if a car can't travel at excessive rates of speed down a thickly settled district, neither should a train. Moderation is the key to life in many aspects. Yes, 5MPH is excessively slow; but 60 may be excessively high. Something to consider.
No family should ever have to go through this tragedy. There is no blame to lay on the family; there is only grief to try to relieve them of.
You can only hope and pray that if you lived in the same area, that nothing like that would happen to you. Because you know what, you don't keep children on leashes - and you can't control their every waking moment.
Plenty of children are killed each year by intentional cruelty at the hands of their own parents -- those are the people you should persecute. Go call DSS and let them know how you feel about stupid parents. But do not place blame on the parent(s) of a young child who tragically lost their life in a horrible, unforseen accident.
A Preventable Accident
I grew up around trains, train yards, and crossings - I even had to cross a ungated intermountain (read: 200+ cars at up to 90 mph) crossing to get to school when I was in first grade.
How in the hell are you going to PREVENT FUTURE ACCIDENTS if you can't talk about what went wrong? The reason I knew and learned about trains is because I was taught from an early age about how to avoid accidents! Yes! My parents taught me based on ... BAD THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO OTHER PEOPLE!
God forbid anybody actually proactively discuss what NOT to do! We need more dead kids so nobody's fee-fees get hurt ... and nobody is held responsible ... and there is no accountability for government or individuals ...
Preventable?
I grew up on the railroad as well; but that's not the point.
Do you truly believe that the families who live there don't warn their children and tell them not to do things? You surely can't be serious.
We tell our children when they're small "don't touch the stove, it's hot" -- yet kids will try it sometimes.
We tell our children not to take drugs -- yet we still have new generations of addicts.
We tell our children not to talk to strangers, there are bad people everywhere. Yet we lose hundreds of children a year to abductions.
Please people. Don't be holier than thou. And don't be naive either.
Children are smaller versions of adults, but with less wherewithall. They are freethinking individuals who make mistakes. And this is one little boy who made a mistake that unfortunately cost him his life.
Warning is one thing ...
reinforcing that warning with behavior that underscores the risk is another, educating about risks and how to reduce them/do things properly is a third, and actually watching young children in high traffic areas or around train tracks is an all-important fourth.
I live where we encounter tracks regularly, and I have kids, and I have seen adults pull crap with their kids around trains - when in cars and out of cars - that is stunningly stupid.
Kids see their parents disregard the obvious hazards when they dash across tracks or walk around gates, ignore signal bells, or stop on the tracks in traffic (or lay on the horn at those who don't) and get the idea that the train is not dangerous.
Just say no approaches are useless - and scientifically demonstrated to be so. It takes adult direction and modeling to lower the risks of all the behaviors you talk about - including the local casual attitudes toward trains. It also takes knowledge of the potential hazards and risks and clear demonstration of "how to do it right" to lower the dangers.
That isn't "holier than thou", that is factual information based on experience with public health campaigns.
For a five year old? Five year olds do not have the ability to evaluate such risks and ten year olds don't have the ability to supervise them properly. For a five year old, it takes either very close supervision near hazards like train tracks or busy roadways or waterways or restriction to areas where they are unlikely to seriously harm themselves.
Agree to disagree
Again, I can't stress enough that you can threaten a child until their blue in the face, they still are going to try things.
It's not poor parenting - and if you do not know this family personally, you can not pass judgement on what they did or didn't do. Do you know first hand how this family instructed and parented and guided their children?
It's unfair to look at a parent of a child who's a drug addict and say "It's your fault". It's unfair to look at a parent of a child who's been abducted and say "it's your fault". It's unfair to look at a parent who might have seen their child blatantly disregard the rules and fear of reprucussion and say "it's your fault".
You can only hope that while it's easy to sit back and say "I would or wouldn't do this" - that all the children in your neighborhood listen and don't get hurt. It's that simple.
I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you on this because while I can see the side of what you're saying about making damn sure your kids stay away from the tracks - at the same time, you're not willing to accept the fact that kids no matter how old - will often do what they're not supposed to do.
I'm very happy for you and those in your neighborhood that no one has been hurt. But that isn't always the case everywhere, and children aren't always obedient little robots. And sometimes,they get hurt from doing things they're not supposed to do.
Unfortunately this time, this child died.
Gates, flashing red lights, and bells
Your railroad crossing has all of them, doesn't it? How is it the railroad's fault if people don't pay attention to all of these warnings?
Obviously the railroad is at fault
Because it doesn't make its trains out of friendly, soft, squishy Nerf.
Even Nerf toys have been
Even Nerf toys have been Nerfed.
Train Speed
Hey I'm sure the two train collision in Newton today had nothing to do with speed either. Right?
Until the NTSB said it did,
Until the NTSB said it did, we don't know.
Everything to do with speed
There was the speed of the train in back, about 40
And the speed of the train in front, about 0
That's a pretty irresistible speed-related causality.
Speaking of kids and railroad tracks
Although these girls are 13 and 14 -- sunbathing on the tracks across a rail trestle in Lebanon, Maine. Train comes along, severs a couple of limbs. Grisly accident...
A few limbs short of earning a Darwin Award
I know it's insensitive, but honestly, how dumb do you have to be to sunbathe on ACTIVE RAILROAD TRACKS?!
Perhaps they'll have better luck next year.
Yikes!
The most horrific part is how the person who lives near the tracks says that the train has a predictable schedule. What were they thinking?
I'm glad that when my kids aren't in school, we get a phone call. Not that the older one has ever cut class, but yikes!