Sad Story -Woman Dies on Amtrak

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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California woman found dead on Amtrak train in Texas

A California woman traveling with two children was found dead on an Dallas-bound Amtrak train Tuesday morning, police said.

Authorities identified the woman as Rhonda Burnett, 41, a Salinas, CA, resident who left the Northern California city on Sunday afternoon.

Sgt. Penny Dunn says there were no signs of trauma. An autopsy has been ordered.

The engineer stopped the train in San Marcos after a fellow passenger, who is a nurse, noticed Burnett had died.

Burnett was in a passenger car, with her seat semi-reclined, and with her 8-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old son, police said.

Police estimated that Burnett may have been dead for several hours before she was found in the morning, shortly after the train left San Antonio, where it stayed overnight Monday.

Child Protective Services was caring for the children until relatives could arrive and pick them up.

San Marcos is about 30 miles south of Austin.

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LC

Yes it is a sad story.

I hope the children are well taken care of by family or friends.

I am sure many of the forum members will add these children to their prayer list. I will.

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LC, this is extremely sad. And very heartbreaking for the children. Will definitely
keep them in my thoughts and prayers, along with the rest of the family & friends.

4

Very sad.

I’d rather leave on a train instead of on a hospital bed though…

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Further update. AP now reports that she was moving to the Dallas area to care for her ailing father. She took numerous medications which are bweing investigated to determine her health condition and cause of death…

LC

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I feel so sorry for the children.
Were they sleeping or did they know she was dead?

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So sorry that this happened. Hopefully she went peacefully in her sleep and did not suffer.

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my condolances to the family.will keep the children in our prayers
stay safe
Joe

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OH my yes this is very much a very sad story. I hope her childern are going to be alright. I’m sure one of the members of her family will take good care of her childern. I wonder what event occured while she was sleeping that lead her to the promsie land??/

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Well, any updates so far? These stories get me really curious, for some reason…

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The body has been transported to Austin for autopsy and a hearing will be held today to determine which family member will have custody of the children. The children’s grandfather lives in Dallas and their father lives in the upper midwest.

dd

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LC, is this kind of story really necessary or appropriate for the forum? Yes it’s sad, but people die every day. In this case, I think it’s quite clear that Amtrak had nothing to do with her death. People die when they die, regardless of location, it could have been an airplane or a bus just as easily.

As for the children, the father will probably get them, unless there is a reason why he shouldn’t.

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I’ll bet it was a heart attack…lot of stress moving like that,…sick father…Texas of all god forsaken places, etc…the poor woman had the deck stacked against her…

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Big_Boy, yes, this is appropriate for this forum. This happened on an Amtrak train, and even though Amtrak obviously had nothing to do with it, it bears a strong possibility that, at the very least, it will bring them some bad press. Average people won’t hear that she died of stress or drug interaction, but that she died on Amtrak. And they’ll probably ask their railfan friends about it (that’s us). We should know the story BEFORE the question is asked.

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You put too much importance on the power of this forum. It’s reach will have no effect on this story, which as far as I know, did not make the national news. At the time of this post, this topic has been viewed 271 times, of which, at least 5 are mine. I have told nobody, nor has anyone asked, so you do the math.

Amtrak, bad press over this??? You are kidding right??

This probably isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and it won’t be the last. This just isnt news, it’s an obituary. It isn’t as if the train contributed to her death, which means it really isn’t train related. It just happened on a train.

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The power of this forum extends to the Railfan and Model Railroad communities almost exclusively, I never doubted that, nor implied otherwise. My nonrailfan friends all know of my interest in trains and, of course, question me or report to me ANYTHING about trains that they hear or see. By having Railfans and Model Railroaders (I’m sure I’m not the only one known to their nonrailfan friends) know the story of what happened will prepare them for the inevitable questions from these friends.

Not making the national press was just the luck of the draw. A slow news day and this story could easily have been “Front Page” across the country. And you know the reporters will look for an angle trying to connect Amtrak or the employees t

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Well Tom, I’m ready to put this one to bed, though now I am curious as to what became of the kids.

If you think about it, it’s almost better that it happened where her body was discovered as quickly as it was. If it had happened at her home, it might have been days before she was discovered. That would have been worse. I’ve heard stories like that too.

Amtrak doesn’t need us to defend it. It has been around much longer than the internet, and has survived many incidents far worse than this, accidents and funding alike.

I don’t mind discussing train related deaths here on the forum, but I really believe we should keep those discussions limited to those involving safety issues, and accidents.

I almost posted this story last week as a reminder to teach our kids grade crossing safety. I’ll share it with you now.

I didn’t hear this story first hand, my girl friend saw it on the local news, and told me. I believe it was last Saturday, a 15 year old girl was riding her bike, when she came to a grade crossing. The arm was down and she stopped. When the train passed, the arm didn’t raise, so she went around, and was struck and killed by a second train on the double track main.

The lesson is don’t be in such a hurry, especially around multi track grade crossings. Obey the signals, there may be a good reason why they are on.

The area in question has always been a safety trouble spot, high speeds in multiple tracks. A few grade crossings in this 5 mile stretch of BNSF track have been seperated with bridges, but that isn’t practical to do with all of them. It seems like every few years, we get a gruesome reminder like this.

BNSF doesn’t need to be defended on this accident, they did nothing wrong. The public needs to be better educated about grade crossing safety. I’m sure LC would agree on that.

I don’t see the need for an outpouring of sympathy here, I’m sure we all feel bad. The point is we need to do every

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BB-

I’m sorry you didn’t like this particular posting. It seems worthy for this forum to me and I intend to continue posting things I feel are worthy. I don’t think there needs to be a “moral” to every posting. Certainly, there have been many postings far less worthy here of late. If you don’t like everything I post, feel free not to read it.

LC

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Well LC, I won’t argue the part about there being a number of less worthy topics. I’m sure there are a bunch of people who would agree with that.

I guess that when I read it, it felt like a news story that wasn’t very newsworthy, filler in whatever paper printed it. Yes, it said Amtrak, but to me, it seemed like it wasn’t up to your usual standard. Your posts are normally better than this.

On the other hand, you were only the messenger, and I really have no right to “shoot” you. [swg]

As Antonio would say, Peace out.

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I don’t think people should be criticized for posting things that bother their hearts. It is like we are neighbors, and occasionally need someone to share a particular sorrow. How rail related or not is not the point. I’ve seen personal matters that have zero to do with the industry or hobby, but have been happy to offer words of condolance or a suggestion that might or might not work. If I am a lawyer and some friend comes to me and tells me his latest medical problem, i’m NOT going to tell him: I’m not interested, I am a lawyer, go talk to a doctor!