Ponchatoula, Louisiana: Woman hit by train, dies

2theadvocate.com ^ | 04/17/05

[Ellesu]

A strawberry farmer was killed by a train Saturday in Ponchatoula, the third train fatality in Tangipahoa Parish since February, police said. Scottie Kupper, 64, of Ponchatoula was crossing the train tracks on foot at Main and Pine streets when she was hit by a northbound Canadian National locomotive, Ponchatoula Police Detective Sgt. Chad Miller said.

Miller said the crossing has arms, but said he could not say whether the arms were functioning pending the completion of a joint investigation between police and Canadian National officials.

Tangipahoa Parish recently has been rocked by a string of train-vehicle collisions, the latest bringing to seven the number of people killed by trains in the parish this year.

Four people were killed Feb. 13 when an Amtrak passenger train slammed into a pickup truck at an unprotected crossing in Roseland.

Less than a week later, two men died when another Amtrak train hit their truck at an unprotected intersection in Independence.

Since the first two incidents, the state Department of Transportation and Development has urged Tangipahoa Parish officials to close five unprotected railroad crossings.

[Normal4me]

This train must have been going 600 mph. I like how they question the crossing gates however. She was WALKING!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We lost two couples that way last week. Somehow, they ended up on a road that was closed due to bridge construction. How sad. Two families lost both their Mom & Dad in one fell swoop.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=35615&nt_adsect=edit

My FIL's first wife, MIL and SIL were all killed in a train/car accident, too. I cross those tracks (closed now for over 25 years due to their accident) on a weekly basis.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Woman hit by train, dies

Masters of the Obvious.

[Ellesu]

Yes. They will try to close the crossing now. Shut all the ones down where people are killed and make people drive miles out of their way to cross.

[76834]

LOOK, LISTEN, LIVE

[deport]

I like how they question the crossing gates however. She was WALKING!

---

I guess it would indicate she walked onto the tracks if the gates were working and down with flashers going. Did she not see them or hear the train or was it a sucide? In either case the pending lawsuit will try to determine the status I'd lay odds on.

[76834]

Suicide by train is not unusual, like suicide by cop.

Prayers for the locomotive crew and the family.

[Sterco]

Unless the woman was deaf it would appear to be "suicide by train". It happens quite often. Since it happened on a road crossing I doubt very much that the train crossed without blowing the whistle.

[76834]

Since it happened on a road crossing I doubt very much that the train crossed without blowing the whistle

Agree.
While the article said it was a Canadian National train the line is really the old Illinois Central.
IC always ran a class act, "City of New Orleans", "Panama Limited", "Casey Jones" etc.

Total professionals in the cab and dont think they would fail to blow at a crossing.
Line thru there has been running trains for over a hundred years and people that live near the track should know the dangers.

[68skylark]

Unless the woman was deaf it would appear to be "suicide by train".

I doubt your "suicide by train" theory. Here is a story of two women walking on the tracks who were both killed -- according to the story they saw and heard the train, but they just froze in place until they were hit and killed. It's an odd reaction, but I guess it happens from time to time.

[Oztrich Boy]

Adnit it, you just wanted to post "A strawberry farmer was killed by a train Saturday in Ponchatoula, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana"

[Ellesu]

Governor Blanco's proposal this session will require local communities to close dangerous railroad crossings or install a mechanical crossing guard.

I am all for making them safer, but the people in this state will continue to drive around the gates or walk right into the path of the train. I am against closing railroad crossings because people do not obey stop signs, warning lights and train whistles.




http://abc26.trb.com/trainax04162005,0,2613599.story?coll=wgno-home-1

Train Kills Strawberry Farmer

Yunji de Nies

April 16, 2005, 9:33 PM CDT

PONCHATOULA -- Scott Kupper and his mother Scottie loaded up their trucks this morning and headed to different sides of Ponchatoula to sell strawberries.

"This is what she liked to do, she enjoyed this, meeting people and selling strawberries to anybody who wanted to come buy them," Scott Kupper said. Kupper says he called his mother around two o'clock to check in.

"I said, 'Hey, how you doing?' She said, 'Oh, I'm doing good, I got six more flats left I'm gonna sell those and I'll be ready to go home.' I told her I had about 10 more left and I'll be done too and then I'm gonna go do something else this afternoon, that was the last time I heard from her.

Farmer Paul Beyl was selling strawberries just a few yards away from Scottie Kupper when he says he heard a freight train come to a sudden stop.

"It kept blowing and blowing and blowing and then I heard the squealing, I knew something was gonna happen," Beyl said. "So I run down to her, the train had stopped and I went over the train and I looked down, then the officer told me to step back but I knew she was gone, she wasn't moving."

Investigators say a Canadian National freight train hit and killed the 64-year old grandmother, as she walked too close to the railroad tracks.

"She's had health problems before, this could have been an indication, she's been diabetic, she had heart problems before and it just may have been a bout," Scott Kupper said.

Kupper said his mother loved to sit outside in the spring and sell fruit from the family farm. He says he will continue to grow and sell strawberries, but it will be difficult without her.

[alnick]

Miller said the crossing has arms, but said he could not say whether the arms were functioning pending the completion of a joint investigation between police and Canadian National officials.

Never, never rely on arms or lights or bells at a crossing to tell you if a train is coming. *Always* look before proceeding.

[ol' hoghead]

I'm sure the first thing done was to down load the event recorder and then a urine sample.

How was your vacation?

ol' hoghead

[Sterco]

Good vacation and didn't get a whole lot done. Those are the best kind actually. Kids still in school and wife working. Kind of lazed off. Was going to take the Harley down to Ariz. but the weather wasn't about to co-operate. I hope the CN let the train crew go back to their home terminal. On the BNSF we give our crew the rest of the trip off on a fatal accident. The stress is incredible. Don't really think it safe for an engineer to remain at the controls after one. Used to be the norm though.

[Sterco]

Imagine we have both seen to many of these grade crossing fatalities. You never really get over em huh?

[ol' hoghead]

I was very lucky. I hit one trailer hung up on a crossing and shoved a cut across a street and hit a car. Nobody injured.

Had a good friend and brother engineer killed when his "limo" was hit by the brother engineer who relieved him after 12 hrs.

[Chapita]

Pontchatoula is known for great strawberries!

[Bogey78O]

I had a cousin killed trying to drive around a crossing.

There is simply no excuse for anyone to be on those tracks when a train is coming through. It's the god damnest stupidest thing a person could do. They might as well go and try catching bullets in their teeth if they think they're that lucky and skilled.