WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	Woman, children hit by train - Four dead, One critical (Fairfield-WTNH) _ A six year old boy remains in extremely critical condition after being hit by a train. His mother and three siblings were killed in the accident. The tragedy on the tracks happened in Fairfield at about 2:20 am. Investigators are still trying to figure out what the family was doing on the tracks in the middle of the night. News Channel 8's Christina Hager reports. Investigators cleared the scene just before 5:00pm Tuesday. The stretch of tracks runs along Route 1, the main business district in Fairfield, and this is where the woman and her four sons were walking early this morning when the train hit them. The only survivor has been identified as 6-year-old Angel Gabriel Urgiles Toledo. Ken Gambardela, CT Dept. of Transportation: "It's probably the most horrific collision that we have had in recent history." Even veteran rescue workers are calling this the most gruesome scene they have ever witnessed. A mother and her four sons were crushed by an Amtrak train going through Fairfield. Dep. Chief Bill Fitzgerald, Fairfield Fire Dept.: "It was on an elevated portion of the railroad tracks. And there was quite a bit of debris around." Chief Richard Felner, Fairfield Fire Dept.: "Books from the children, and backpacks, and stuff like that." Dr. Ronald Gross, Trauma Surgeon: "Lot of debris, lot of carnage." It was just before 2:30 this morning. Police say the woman and the children were walking along the tracks when a train came up from behind, the whistle blowing. James O'Donnell, Metropolitan Transit Authority: "At that point the woman with the three children on the left hand side of the track attempted to rescue the child on the right hand side of the track, who was attempting to join the others by crossing the tracks in front of the oncoming train." It was too late. The engineer couldn't stop before hitting the group, killing the woman and three of the boys, leaving only one survivor, a 6-year-old whose leg was cut off. Doctors are now fighting to keep him alive. Gambardela: "Sometimes you can't hear these trains at all until they are right up on top of you, and of course then it's to late." Investigators pulled a "black box" from the train, which has recorded information from the train like how fast it was going. We're told the trains often go as fast as 70 mph, sometimes even faster, on that stretch of tracks. They expect to have that information by tonight or tomorrow morning. Police are not saying the names of the woman, or the other boys, until the autopsies are completed. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

Woman, children hit by train - Four dead, One critical
(Fairfield-WTNH) _ A six year old boy remains in extremely critical condition after being hit by a train. His mother and three siblings were killed in the accident. The tragedy on the tracks happened in Fairfield at about 2:20 am. Investigators are still trying to figure out what the family was doing on the tracks in the middle of the night.
News Channel 8's Christina Hager reports.

Investigators cleared the scene just before 5:00pm Tuesday. The stretch of tracks runs along Route 1, the main business district in Fairfield, and this is where the woman and her four sons were walking early this morning when the train hit them. The only survivor has been identified as 6-year-old Angel Gabriel Urgiles Toledo.

Ken Gambardela, CT Dept. of Transportation: "It's probably the most horrific collision that we have had in recent history."

Even veteran rescue workers are calling this the most gruesome scene they have ever witnessed. A mother and her four sons were crushed by an Amtrak train going through Fairfield.

Dep. Chief Bill Fitzgerald, Fairfield Fire Dept.: "It was on an elevated portion of the railroad tracks. And there was quite a bit of debris around."

Chief Richard Felner, Fairfield Fire Dept.: "Books from the children, and backpacks, and stuff like that."

Dr. Ronald Gross, Trauma Surgeon: "Lot of debris, lot of carnage."

It was just before 2:30 this morning. Police say the woman and the children were walking along the tracks when a train came up from behind, the whistle blowing.

James O'Donnell, Metropolitan Transit Authority: "At that point the woman with the three children on the left hand side of the track attempted to rescue the child on the right hand side of the track, who was attempting to join the others by crossing the tracks in front of the oncoming train."

It was too late. The engineer couldn't stop before hitting the group, killing the woman and three of the boys, leaving only one survivor, a 6-year-old whose leg was cut off. Doctors are now fighting to keep him alive.

Gambardela: "Sometimes you can't hear these trains at all until they are right up on top of you, and of course then it's to late."

Investigators pulled a "black box" from the train, which has recorded information from the train like how fast it was going. We're told the trains often go as fast as 70 mph, sometimes even faster, on that stretch of tracks. They expect to have that information by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Police are not saying the names of the woman, or the other boys, until the autopsies are completed.

Today's News Page.

WTNH Home Page.