AUSTIN (March 14) - The reigning Miss Deaf Texas who was killed by a train was text messaging her parents and friends on her cell phone as she walked near the tracks and might have been distracted, police said. Tara McAvoy, 18, was walking about a foot away from Union Pacific railroad tracks. She had typed a message to her parents, both of whom are hearing-impaired, letting them know she was walking along the tracks from home to her mother's workplace on Monday. A few minutes later, McAvoy was struck by the snowplow on the front of a 65-car Union Pacific train, which authorities said extended 16 inches on both sides of the tracks. She died at the scene. "As the train approached, they sounded the horn and got no response," Austin police Detective David Fugitt said. "They activated the emergency brakes but were unable to stop in time." Fugitt said he is not sure whether McAvoy would have felt vibrations from the train, which was hauling a fleet of cars from Mexico to St. Louis. Gene Mirus, an instructor in the deaf studies department at Gallaudet University in Washington, said deaf people often have a false sense of security when walking along train tracks. "It is easy for deaf people to walk on railroad tracks under the premise that vibrations would warn them of an oncoming train," Mirus wrote the Austin American-Statesman in an e-mail. "Contrary to what most people think, there are no vibrations on railroad tracks." Based on factors ranging from the type of train to its weight to the kind of rail, a person wouldn't necessarily feel any vibrations from an approaching train, said Warren Flatau, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, which is part of U.S. Department of Transportation and regulates the safety of the nation's railroad operations. "A train can sneak up on you," he said. A railroad spokesman said that the accident underscores the danger of walking anywhere near railroad tracks. "It's not safe to be there," said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis. Mirus said he is working on a national campaign to educate deaf people about the dangers of walking on railroad tracks. McAvoy graduated from the Texas School for the Deaf in 2005 and won the state pageant in June. She was scheduled to compete in the national pageant in California this year. She had been a cheerleader, a basketball player and an honor roll student at the school.
Very sad to read. I was railfanning just last week and we got snuck up on by a train. It really spooked us all. It is somewhat amazing how quite they can be, especailly when you are distracted by something else.
Sad news. Hopefully, her high profile as a deaf person will help others to learn from this sad incident
Very sad indeed, but saying that wouldn't you think that a deaf person might be a little more careful...As a person with a disability (hydrosyphilis) I have learned to be very in-tune with what my body is telling me, and that hightened sense extends to the world around me as well.
Sad indeed. The report in the paper here said she was walking somewhere near the tracks I've also been quite surprised by trains when in the woods. I can usually hear the rails start singing just before I hear the locos, and it is often mere seconds.
I think teens forget. They get cocky / overly self confident and just feel they are safe. Who knows what she was thinking. Heck - this morning on the way to my interview I was pre occupied and in the bright, (glare), sunlight I misjudged how close a bus was. He probably missed me by 5 feet but it could have been ugly. This is a street I cross 10 times a week. I got slack. So even as a 50 yo adult with very bad vision who knows he has to be more careful sometimes our minds are somewhere else. My thoughts go out to her parrents.
Unfortunately, (while we don't know in this specific instance), the thought is too true! They are at an age of infallibility. "It's not going to happen to me" syndrome. Totally preoccupied with their own little world. Which is why so many teens die..... Boxcab E50
this was also posted at 2gutzandsumtrains http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/14/beauty.queen.death.ap/index.html man it is sad tom
