Charges Possible In San Jose toddler killed by train

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=3656601
Charges Possible In Toddler's Death
Mother Did Not Know Woman
By Kelly Ryan

Nov. 22 - KGO - A San Jose mother is grieving the death of her
two-year-old son, left in the care of a babysitter the mom says she
doesn't even know. The little boy died Tuesday after wandering onto a
railroad track. Now his babysitter could face criminal charges.

Twenty-two-year-old Nicole Wilson was at a new job Monday when she got
a call from police saying her son had been killed. It turns out she
didn't know the woman the child was with.

Wilson said she left her two boys in the care of the babysitter. That
babysitter reportedly handed off the children to her roommate. Around
11:00 a.m., that roommate was taking the two boys across two sets of
tracks to go to McDonald's. She went back over the tracks to get her
three-month-old son, who was in a stroller. She told the boys to stay
put.

Two-year-old Alexander followed her, and was truck by an Amtrak train
traveling as fast as 79 miles per hour.

Officer Gina Tepoorten, San Jose police department: "Being a parent,
it's an extremely tragic incident, and I can't imagine what that small
child's mother must be facing right now."

The area where the woman crossed is not a legal crossing, but
apparently it's used all the time. Even as police were investigating on
Monday, people were continuing to cross illegally.

This woman, as we mentioned, could face criminal charges - such as
involuntary manslaughter or child endangerment.
====================
Posted on Tue, Nov. 22, 2005
Toddler killed by train in San Jose
By Julia Prodis Sulek
San Jose Mercury News

A young South San Jose mother left her two children in the care of a
family friend when she went to a new job Monday -- but that wasn't the
woman who was with the boys when one of them was killed by a train.

``I have no clue who she is,'' Nicole Wilson said. ``She's not going to
get away with it.''

The woman -- Wilson's babysitter's roommate -- was taking the two boys
across two sets of train tracks at 11 a.m. to the McDonald's near
Monterey Highway and Blossom Hill Road. She had successfully gotten the
boys across the tracks, but went back to retrieve her own 3-month-old
son, who was in his stroller. She had told the boys to stay put, police
said, but the 2-year-old, Alexander, wandered after her and was struck
by an Amtrak train traveling as fast as 79 mph.

``What person would walk a toddler over the train tracks,'' Wilson, a
22-year-old single mother, said Monday night. ``Even if her baby is in
that stroller -- her baby is 3 months old, he's not going to run away.
I don't get it.''

The death, at Monterey Highway under the Blossom Hill Road overpass, is
being investigated by the homicide unit of the San Jose Police
Department. Police questioned the woman into the night. She could face
charges of involuntary manslaughter, child neglect or both, said police
spokeswoman Gina Tepoorten.

Wilson said she had left her children, Alexander, 2, and Elijah, 4,
with a family friend when she left about 9:30 a.m. for a job
orientation at Toys R Us. She was shocked to learn that her babysitter
had handed the children off to a roommate.

Wilson got the news about 1 p.m. while waiting for a ride home. A Toys
R Us employee came running out, telling her the police were on the
phone. That's when a detective told her she needed to go to the
station.

``Can you at least tell me if they're alive?'' Wilson asked.

``One of them is,'' the detective responded, but she didn't know which
child until she arrived at the police department and heard her older
son asking for her.

``My son said, `Brother got hit by a choo-choo train. Blood is
everywhere, and he has an owie,' '' Wilson said.

Her two sons were so close that on Alexander's second birthday last
month, she said, all he wanted was his brother. ``He was always happy.
He loved his brother. He always had a smile on his face.''

Alexander's greatest fear was trains, Wilson said. ``He'll hear a train
and make one of us hold him,'' she said. ``He's scared. For him to get
killed by one is not right. It's the worst thing.''

Crossing the Union Pacific tracks on that stretch is considered
trespassing, but it is a law that is clearly ignored by residents in
the area.

While police were collecting evidence Monday afternoon, dozens of
people crossed the tracks -- from teenagers at Oak Grove High School
heading to their homes to people with shopping baskets going to
Wal-Mart and Albertsons at Monterey Plaza.

The nearest official pedestrian crossing is a half-mile north of
Blossom Hill Road, at Chynoweth Avenue, where traffic lights and
mechanical arm barriers signal oncoming trains.

But near the spot where Alexander was hit there are two sets of
crosswalks on Monterey Highway that dead-end into the railroad's
right-of-way. There is no fence to prevent pedestrians from reaching
the tracks.

Crossing there may be quicker than using the official crossing, but it
is still not easy for one person -- much less someone traveling with
two small children and an infant.

Pedestrians must cross the four lanes of Monterey Highway, then
navigate a wide, rutted dirt median littered with trash, up a rocky
berm, across two sets of raised tracks, down the other side, then
across a two-lane frontage road.

``I see a lot of kids walk over here. The trains come fast,'' said Wais
Shire, 37, who lives in an apartment complex on the east side of
Monterey Highway. ``This is a dangerous place. Some people -- they're
crazy.''

Amtrak's Coast Starlite train, bound for Los Angeles from Seattle,
remained stopped on the tracks until nearly 3 p.m. while some of its
224 passengers were interviewed as possible witnesses.

The train was not scheduled to stop at the upcoming Ford Road station,
so it was traveling at the near-maximum speed of 79 mph, said Amtrak
spokeswoman Vernae Graham.

>>From January through August this year, four pedestrians in Santa Clara
County were killed in train accidents. Statewide during the same time,
56 people were killed.

Wilson said she confronted the family friend late Monday. The woman
kept apologizing and said she trusted her roommate with the children.

``No,'' Wilson said she shot back. ``I trusted you.''

.

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