Friends taking selfies together is nothing new. But for these three teenage girls, a single photo turned out to be the final moment before a devastating tragedy.Back in 2011, a small Utah community was left heartbroken after three young lives were lost in an accident that no one saw coming.
According to Utah County sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon, teens Essa Ricker, Kelsea Webster, and Kelsea’s younger sister Savannah had waved to engineers as a Utah Railway train passed by them at the Covered Bridge Canyon crossing in Utah.
What none of the girls noticed, though, was that a second train—a Union Pacific carrier was coming from the opposite direction at the same time.Sgt. Cannon told reporters that the two trains were passing with very little space between them just three to four feet.
The approaching train struck all three teens. Essa and Kelsea were killed instantly on impact.
Savannah was rushed to a nearby hospital and underwent emergency surgery.But despite efforts to save her, doctors later told her family that her brain injuries were far too severe to recover from.
Her life support was eventually removed.
The teens tragically lost their livesUnion Pacific/Essa Ricker/Kelsea Webster/Savannah Webster
In a heartbreaking blog post, Jayna Webster—the mother of Savannah and Kelsea wrote: “We spoke to the doctors today and they informed us that Savvy’s brain injuries were too great.”“Even though they’ve had done everything possible, Savannah will not be able to recover any further. We will keep her on life support till the end of the day, but it’s time to say goodbye, for now, to an angel that walked among us.”
Just minutes before the accident, Savannah had posted on Facebook: “Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!”
The girls, who were passionate about trains, had taken a selfie near the tracks. They had no idea a fast-moving train was heading toward them from the other side.The photo they snapped moments before the impact even shows the distant glow of the oncoming train’s headlights in bright yellow behind them.
Sadly, they didn’t hear the warning horn in time to move out of the way.
Engineer Michael Anderson did everything he could to warn the girls. He blasted the horn repeatedly, but they didn’t respond.“We watched in horror as we got closer.” John recalled emotionally. “We saw them for about 12 seconds until they disappeared from our sight and the train continued moving forward.”
Once the train finally came to a stop, John ran toward the scene. He reached one of the girls and quickly realized she had no pulse.
He found that the second girl had also passed away. Then he turned to Savannah, who was still breathing but critically injured.She was clinging to life, and John knelt down beside her to offer comfort.
“I told her everything would be OK and she relaxed a little.” he gently told her, trying to ease her fear in that moment.
