A freight train blew its horn Wednesday afternoon as it got close to Woodland Village Mobile Home Park where many children were outside playing — just a day after another freight train’s horn blew Tuesday morning at the same location just before striking a 3-year-old boy and his 2-year-old sister. The boy, Caleb Wilson, was killed and and the girl is still hospitalized.
A police investigation indicated that the toddlers snuck out of a screen door of their nearby residence and made their way to the CSX railroad tracks just south of the trailer park, near U.S. 20 and west of Willowcreek Road.
Portage Police Chief Troy Williams said the conductor of the train said he saw the toddlers on the tracks and “he blew the horn and attempted to brake but was unable to stop before striking the toddlers.”
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Williams said the investigation remains ongoing. Once it’s completed, the investigation will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for review, he said.
Williams said Wednesday that the 2-year-old “is doing well and should be going home in a couple days.”
In the meantime, Shelby Jones, a four-year resident of the park, wants to make sure a tragedy like that does not happen again.
Jones’ young children were among those playing outside their residences on Wednesday, with the railroad tracks looming nearby.
“On this street alone there are 12 kids under the age of 8,” Jones said. “Many trains go by — some blow their horn, some don’t. On a hot summer day there are kids everywhere around here. I want to try to make a difference here in this area.”
In an effort to do that, Jones and her neighbor and fellow mom Jessica Mirowski have created a Change.org petition to get CSX to erect a fence between the residences and the tracks.
The embankment that separates the two is not big enough, Jones said.
“It would not be that hard for my toddler to walk right up there to the tracks,” she said. “CSX is a large corporation and they can make a difference right here in this neighborhood where kids are everywhere.
“We don’t want to have it happen again.”
The petition “is for the safety of all the little ones around here,” Mirowski said.
One street over from Jones and Mirowski, there were more children playing outside, including the grandchildren of Francisco Perez, who has lived in the park for 26 years.
“There has never been a fence there,” Perez said, while noting there has never been an issue without it before. “It is just sad.”
Gabrielle Ashley, the mother of Perez’s grandchildren, said a fence would be a barrier.
“If my kids ran over there now, they could not get over a fence,” she said.
Staff reporter Becky Jacobs contributed to this report.
Rob Earnshaw is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
