(Henrico, Virginia – September 4, 2017)
A 9-year-old Henrico, VA boy, celebrating his last day of vacation before the start of school the next day, succumbed to massive injuries he suffered when he seemingly entered an easily accessible CSX railroad freight yard. The yard is near the boy’s home when he entered it to play around. In incident took place Monday afternoon at about 3:30 P.M., EDT.
The elementary school boy, Rakee Cary, was treated at the scene by first responders, and then rushed to VCU Medical Center in Richmond, VA, where he died about a half hour later.
Cary and three other children were playing in CSX’s Fulton Yard, which stretches into two adjacent Virginia counties. The busy rail yard is unfenced. The victim’s companions, who asked not to be named, said they were wandering through the rail yard when Cary mounted a freight car step on a slow moving freight train, but slipped under the car’s wheels as he attempted to dismount.
“He (Cary) was on it (the rail car), and when he tried to get off, he couldn’t. He slipped,” testified one of the other boys to Kristin Smith of ABC News WRIC-TV, Channel 8 in Richmond. “We all just started running towards here to get my mom and my aunt and his grandma and his sister to come over and call 911,” the young witness continued.
An adult neighbor who responded to the boys’ calls for help said of the victim’s injuries “I wasn’t thinking the worst; I was thinking he might have sprained or broken his leg – anything other than what I saw, because I’ll never get that image of him out of my head.”
The heavily used, multi-track railroad yard is located just across from Rockett’s Landing and near Bickerstaff Road, New Osborne Turnpike and Hatcher Street in Henrico.
Cary was supposed to begin fall classes at Overbee-Sheppard Elementary School on Tuesday, but instead, grief counselors were there to comfort his fellow students.
