Following article is from the From the Roanoke Times dated 7-18-08.
Passengers of safety train not aware of death
Police say Loyd Martin committed suicide 12 hours before the excursion left Roanoke.
The 90 or so public officials and others aboard a rail-safety excursion out of Roanoke on Wednesday received all the latest casualty statistics on drivers who ignore grade-crossing warnings and pedestrians who trespass on the tracks -- except for one.
Twelve hours before the special train left for a trip to Lynchburg and back, it ran over and killed Loyd Martin, 63, on its way through a downtown rail yard to the staging point from which the excursion was to begin.
The incident, in which railroad authorities said Martin entered railroad property illegally and lay down on the tracks, illustrated a trespassing problem that the excursion is intended to address.
But no one in charge mentioned the death -- which has since been ruled a suicide -- when the safety train disembarked Wednesday morning, leaving the passengers who had come for lessons on high-risk behavior around trains unaware of the latest incident.
Melvin Jones, executive director of Operation Lifesaver in Virginia, said he gave his usual presentation about railroad dangers and safety steps for the public. He gave death and injury data for the first few months of 2008.
But Jones said he skipped over the Tuesday night death because he didn't have enough information to classify it as a suicide -- which is not recorded in federal statistics -- or an accidental death, which is.
"It's a tragedy any way," he said. "Even the Operation Lifesaver train itself can become a part of someone's tragedy if that individual puts themselves in harm's way. And that's sad, that's very sad."
A locomotive engineer was slowly moving the three-car Operation Lifesaver train into position Tuesday night behind the O. Winston Link Museum when he saw a man on the tracks, Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said.
But the engineer could not stop the train until after it struck the man, Chapman said. The crew found him underneath the train about 10 p.m., according to Chapman.
Martin died from multiple blunt force injuries and the Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a suicide. His family said he lived in Salem, while Roanoke police said he had no fixed address.
As is routine, Norfolk Southern Corp. implemented accident protocols. After police were called; they eventually tracked down Martin's family.
The team that was to take the train out for the educational ride was briefed Wednesday morning. But that's where the flow of official information apparently stopped.
Del. Charles Poindexter, a state lawmaker from Rocky Mount, said he took the trip to learn more about the rail system, which state leaders want to see enhanced. He said he heard other passengers talking about a rail-related fatality but did not hear that the incident involved the train he was on.
But, "it wouldn't have made any difference to me," he said.
Either way, the message that hit home is the same.
"Even with the safest crew and the safest train ... incidents can happen," Poindexter said.
Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing collisions, deaths and injuries where roads cross train tracks and elsewhere on railroad property. The program is backed by railroads, highway safety groups and government agencies.
During an Operation Lifesaver ride, passengers watch television monitors showing what the crew sees out the windshield of the cab while the train is moving.
As rare as it sounds, an Operation Lifesaver train being involved in a casualty incident is not without precedent.
"It has happened before," said Marmie Edwards, a spokeswoman for the national office of Operation Lifesaver in Alexandria. Her agency does not keep track of how many such Operation Lifesaver-related incidents have occurred, however.
In 2005, a North Carolina Operation Lifesaver train collided with a tractor-trailer that didn't yield to the train at a crossing near Cove City, N.C., The Associated Press reported. Three of 100 passengers and the truck driver were hurt, the report said. The excursion was canceled.
It is unclear how Martin spent his last day alive.
His brother, Bill Martin of Collinsville, said Martin was a veteran drawing federal benefits and undergoing treatment at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He had lived most of his life in the Martinsville area. He was unmarried, and had no children.
When he was found he had $300 in his pocket, a watch and headphones, Bill Martin said.
"You can't stop someone from suicide when they make up their mind," Martin said.