High School Football Hero Killed By Train
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Mourners from Orange Park, Florida said goodbye this week to a Clay County, Florida athlete killed in a train accident.
Wes Whiddon, 17, and two friends were fishing from a train trestle right next to SR 220. A CSX train approach. All three of the teens tried to get out of the way but Whiddon could not. He was killed immediately, his two friends were hurt. It's amazing they too were not killed.
A junior and on the Fleming Island High School Golden Eagles football team, hundreds of people turned out for his funeral Tuesday.
The location on the tracks is a popular fishing spot posted with trespass signs and privately owned. Warning signs are posted around railroad crossings and tracks for a reason. They are dangerous. Often a person doesn’t hear a train coming, or there simply is not enough room to get out of the way quickly.
Despite being a quiet place, usually removed from roads and a lot of noise, there is never a reason to walk or drive a car or ATV down a train track. Not only is it dangerous, it's illegal. Remember- the engineer may see you but he cannot stop the train quickly enough to avoid a collision.
Bridges and tracks are also not wide enough to accomodate both you and the train. Since 1990, more than 5,000 people have been killed while walking on railroad rights-of-way and at railroad crossings. Thousands more have suffered serious injuries.
Whiddon was a model student and looked up to by many. Let's hope that the many also remember the situation that led to his death and that it serves as a very painful but important lifelong reminder.