Always wait for the barriers to lift at a railroad crossing.
A Riverside bike rider didn’t, and sadly, paid the price.
According to the Press-Enterprise, the woman was riding her bike east on Mission Inn Ave in downtown Riverside when she stopped to wait for a southbound train around 11:10 this morning.
As soon as the train passed, she continued across the tracks while the crossing arms were reportedly still down and the warning lights flashing. She was then hit and killed by a train traveling north on the tracks, whose approach would have been hidden from sight by the other train.
The victim is identified only as an apparent transient in her 30s.
This is the 20th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third in Riverside County. That compares to 41 in SoCal this time last year, and six in the county.
She is also the first bike rider to be killed in a collision with a train anywhere in Southern California since August of last year.
Update: The Press-Enterprise has identified the victim as 31-year old Virginia Gadberry of Riverside.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Virginia Gadberry and her loved ones.
The noise of the passing train masks the oncoming trains arrival, the bike allows the alacrity even for someone no longer a kid or permanently housed, sober or not, to be vulnerable to such surprising blunt trauma.
Having superior mobility should not make us so unprotected. Until the rail owners are rendered insolvent it will remain ironically dangeous. Often the pedestrian or bike lane has no gate, only cars are mainstream enough, sure to gain juries of there addicts, to survive by the restraint of the lowered arms.
Our prayers go up for the family and friends of the victim.
Very sad, but that woman was clearly an idiot. I mean, how dumb do you have to be to get HIT BY A TRAIN?
Let’s be careful with the victim blaming. One of the few comment rules on this site is to be respectful of the dead; yes, she made an easily avoidable mistake, but we have no idea what else may have been going on with or around her that might have caused that.
And let’s never forget that family members of victims often come to this site to read about their love ones. They deserve our respect and compassion, which we can show by treating the victim the same way.
I thank you very much for the effort you truly put in to make sure no disrespect happens…..I wish there were more people who actually know what values and morals are and even use them…..today’s society is so caught up in non sense that no one remembers what value s, morals, dignity, respect, truth, Trust, loyalty, honesty, dependable, caring, loving, passion, compassion, happiness, acceptance, patience, and so much more ….are any more let alone they don’t even distill these important parts of life in their children so as these children grow they totally have no clue what any one of those things are…..it’s so sad to see in my opinion…..we all have our own thoughts and opinions and so on….we’re even entitled to speak them, yet as we speak them many tend to forget that the words used to communicate can be very dangerous, hurtful, disrespectful and more. Words should be chosen cautiously and carefully so miscommunication or disrespect does not happen. No one is perfect, this we all should know….we are all human and we all make mistakes, but we all don’t think about the feelings or respect of others, and that’s not good….we should be helping one another out, loving one another, learning from one another, guiding one another, educating each other, show more care and respect to one another and pass it forward ….I’m not saying be best buds with every one but buy paying it forward, respect everyone, and care more than life becomes more clear, more beautiful more amazing and awesome…..life is unexplainable in words…..it’s well worth it all…..remember an attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it! Life is to beautiful to hate or disrespect…..live your life fully and to the fullest you can daily….live…laugh….love ….and learn………we all have the same color blood ….and same organs to keep us alive so why treat anyone different than what you would want to be treated…..we’re all individuals who are unique in our own ways but think of all the possibilities if we were all to come together and work as a team….not as one self….endless possibilities…..
Cameron Newland….. I am under the impression by your comment here that you must be a younger man…..? Well let me start off by saying….yes this was very sad….this woman was my family…..and it hit the family hard…..she was a mother to 2 young beautiful girls also. She had problems in her life as does every person on earth….but an idiot she was not….see you only know what your reading….have you thought that there is details that is not publicized at all nor will it never be…..do you not think that there are several factors and scenario s that possibly happen and that s how she got hit?i can tell you that there is facts about her death that you don’t know and will never know but to call her an idiot is utterly ridiculous and rude and even disrespectful….how can you possibly be ok saying something like that when you know nothing of the situation….haven’t you herd the saying, ‘never judge a book by its cover’ ? It’s a great lesson in life to truly follow…. I know your not perfect and I know I’m not perfect, but I do think outside the box and never do I jump to conclusions….I forgive you from the bottom of my heart and I pray you honestly understand and listen to all I’ve said… With experience and even age comes wisdom…..I pray nothing like this ever happens to you or any of your loved ones…..this is a time to come together and keep one another strong and keep one another positive…not to bkame, insult or disrespect any one. As you comment on any other site I ask you to please comment with more cautious words than you did here. Words never can be taken back once they are said or spoken. So please show some concern to others. Thanks you and may God bless you and your family and loved ones.
Hi Bunny. So sorry for your loss. As you say, there is always more to the story. It’s hard for us to understand how something like this can happen, so it’s easy to jump to conclusions. My sympathy and prayers go out for you and your family; so sad to know her daughters will grow up without a mother.