Mother's pain is lesson for us all

To the editor:

I live in Scott City and know trains stop on the tracks for exceptionally long periods of time. They block the crossings. Many times I have had to backtrack and be late for work due to a train.

If I recall the original article about an accident in which a girl under a train lost her arm, the engines of the train were just past Store 24 when it began to move. Therefore, the mother and her children would not have heard a whistle blow.

Trains are dangerous. The mother made a bad judgment call at the wrong time. She does not need prison. She is already in her own prison dealing with this. It is never a smart thing to crawl under or jump the coupling of a train, but I do not think she intended for this tragedy to happen. And it is illegal to trespass on railroad property. Let this be a lesson to us all.

LAURA BEATTIE, Scott City