Train hits 2 teens; both critical
By CLYNTON NAMUO
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Thursday, May. 29, 2008
LEBANON, Maine – A freight train struck two teenage girls yesterday morning, severing limbs from each in a macabre accident at a popular spot used by youths for swimming and sunbathing in this New Hampshire border town.
Police said the two girls -- Rachel Brown, 14, and Destiny Phaneuf, 13, both of Lebanon -- apparently fell asleep as they were sunbathing on the tracks when the train hit them a little after 10:30 a.m., despite blowing its whistle. Both were taken by ambulance to Milton Elementary School and transported via helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where each was listed in critical condition last night.
The train severed Phaneuf's leg below the knee as well as Brown's foot, said York County Sheriff Lt. Gary Fecteau. He said the two girls were cutting class when the accident happened, and there's no indication either was using alcohol or drugs or that their hearing was impaired by headphones.
Destiny Phaneuf's father said his daughter lost much of her leg, but otherwise will be fine. She had no internal or brain injuries, although she received stitches for a superficial head wound, Rob Phaneuf said in a brief telephone conversation last night.
"They said she was a very lucky girl," he said from his Berwick home.
Destiny, a student at Noble Middle School in Berwick, was supposed to be at a friend's house, he said.
Fecteau said the girls' injuries indicate they tried to get out of the train's way, but noted that the conductor and engineer never saw them move. The conductor is being tested for drugs and alcohol per federal policy, he said.
Tammy Thompson, who lives next to the tracks about 100 yards from the collision site, said she heard the brakes lock yesterday morning and knew something had gone wrong. She watched from her home as Milton, N.H., Fire and Rescue officials flocked to the area and took away the girls, one of whom was conscious and the other, not.
"She picked her hand up and put it up to her head," Thompson said of the conscious girl, who officials said was Brown.
South Berwick resident Susan Milliron said she met Phaneuf through a mentor program at Village Elementary School in York. She was shocked to hear of the accident.
Phaneuf made friends easily, friends Milliron had to turn away when it was mentoring time, Milliron said.
"She was fun, and I looked forward to working with her every week," Milliron said. "She loved to tell stories."
Popular spot
The tracks travel on a trestle near the Milton Three Ponds Dam and the area around the accident, where the trestle meets land, is a popular swimming and sunning spot for local kids, Thompson said, many of whom have to be shooed from the tracks. She said the train repeatedly blows its whistle as it approaches town.
"Once they get to the crossing itself, they're laying on it," she said, referring to the crossing just outside her home.
Thompson said she recently called police on two teenage girls sunning themselves on the tracks because she was concerned, and she wondered yesterday whether it may have been Brown and Phaneuf.
Fecteau could not say whether the two may have sunned themselves on the track previously.
Milton officials said they often have to tell kids to leave the area around the tracks and that a boy on a bicycle was previously struck by a train, but could not recall anything as serious as yesterday's incident.
The crash occurred just outside downtown Milton, where residents said they were stunned the girls did not hear the train coming sooner.
The train rolls through town at least twice a day, lumbering through with such force that it shakes buildings on the opposite side of the river. It also blows its whistle along the way to alert people of its coming.
The train was heading north to Ossipee Aggregates loaded with rebar and traveling about 15 miles an hour when it hit the girls, Fecteau said.
As the scene was cleared yesterday afternoon and the train was allowed to leave around 2 p.m., officials combed the tracks for clues while a Milton Fire and Rescue boat searched the water.
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Hey, Stacy, this looks like a good place to rest and tan for a while.
