8 Year Old Girl Struck and Killed by Train

Tragedy struck in Fayette County on Sunday when a freight train struck and killed an eight year old girl. Also seriously injured was her mother. Witness to the terrible accident were the father and younger brother.

Michelle Lynn Bowers, 8, and her mother, Victoria Ann Bowers, 28, were struck on Sunday, April 22nd, by an CSX train traveling east. The family is from Normalville in Fayette County. According to the family, it was Michelle's eighth birthday and she requested to take a family walk with her mother, father, and younger brother to go fishing. Investigator Trooper Jeff Ramsey is quoted as saying "At the little girl's request to celebrate her day, the Bowers family was crossing the three sets of tracks there to go fishing in the Yough." The railroad tracks are located just north of the Youghiogheny River near South Connellsville, in Fayette County. at about 12:30 p.m., after determining that the current in the river was too strong for fishing,the family began walking along the tracks' northern border for several hundred feet. With the family was the father, Lawrence bowers, 50, and the girls' brother, Teddy Bowers, 7. The father and brother got about 50 feet ahead of the girls as the train got nearer them on its way from St. Louis to Baltimore.

The father and son headed across the three sets of tracks, and Lawrence has indicated to police that when he and Teddy crossed the tracks, the train was about 500 yards away. He, the father, tried to indicate to his wife to wait until the train, which was a two-locomotive, 48 car train, to pass before they attempted to cross the tracks.

Unfortunately, the mother must have believed they could make it, because the next thing the father knew, he heard a loud impact, and turned to see his daughter flying through the air as his wife was dragged for a short distance.

At 2:13 p.m., county Deputy Coroner Jessie Langer pronounced Michelle Lynn Bowers dead at the scene. No autopsy will be performed.

Victoria Bowers was then transported to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh via STAT MedEva. She has remained in critical condition since Sunday night.