Two Utah Girls Die, A Third Injured On Union Pacific Tracks
(Spanish Fork, Utah – October 15, 2011)
Three teenage girls were out for a Saturday afternoon project to photograph fall colors in the Covered Bridge area of rural Spanish Fork, UT when they were caught between two trains on Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
The victims, sisters Kelsea Webster, 15, and Savannah Webster, 13, and cousin Essa Ricker, 15, were caught between passing trains, one a UPRR freight eastbound on the double track line, the other a Utah Railway freight, operating on UPRR tracks out of Grand Junction, CO.
The noise of the UTRR train may have prevented them from hearing warning blasts from the Union Pacific train coming in the opposite direction.
The lone survivor, Savannah, was rushed to Primary Children’s Medical Center where she underwent surgery Sunday for her traumatic injuries. The girls were all students at Diamond Fork Junior High School in Spanish Fork.
The Webster family had moved to Spanish Fork from California just before school began in the fall.
