Fredzania Thompson an aspiring Texas model has died while posing during a photo shoot after being hit by an oncoming freight train.
Fredzania Thompson a 19 year old aspiring Texas model has died after being hit by a freight train after getting stuck between two railroad tracks whilst posing for a photo shoot.
A report via Associated Press told of Fredzania ‘Zanie’ Thompson dying Friday afternoon after being struck near the intersection of Hollister and Lee St in downtown Navasota.
At the time of what has since been described a ‘tragic accident’, Thompson has been standing between two sets of tracks when a a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) train approached and she moved out of the way onto another track.
Police said Thompson was not aware there was a Union Pacific train approaching in the opposite direction and ended up stuck. The photographer was not hurt in the accident.
Navasota Examiner reported Union Pacific spokesman Jeff De Graff saying train crew had alerted the model and photographer with the horn as they approached to no avail.
Reiterated Navasota Assistant City Manager Shawn Myatt: ‘Basically, you have two railroad tracks there, one is Burlington Northern to the west and one is Union Pacific to the east, and she was in between the two tracks,’
‘Burlington Northern had a train on their track coming and she turned back to the east to walk across the Union Pacific track and walked right in front of the Union Pacific train that was heading south.’
The incident occurred before 1pm, with Thompson pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Authorities stopped traffic in Navasota for five hours following the accident as they conducted an investigation.
The Union Pacific train had been traveling from Oklahoma to Beaumont and had 101 cars carrying grain. The speed of the train on impact is unknown, but officials said a train traveling 50mph would need over a mile to come to a full stop.
Speaking to The Eagle, Thompson’s mother, Hakamie Stevenson said that Fredzania had been a student at Blinn College in Bryan, but wanted to put her education on hold to pursue modeling.
Zanie, who would have turned 20 on Monday, was a 2015 graduate of Navasota High School where she had scholarships for being a star volleyball player.
Stevenson said her daughter was known as role model and a leader to her younger siblings and her friends knew her as a hair and makeup wiz.
Thompson was also engaged to her 25-year-old boyfriend, Darnell Chatman.
But there’s more.
Chatman said the couple had just recently found out they were expecting a child together and was four weeks pregnant at the time of the tragedy.
On Monday friends, family, and other mourners gathered at the site of the accident to pay their tributes to the teen on her birthday noted the dailymail.
Loved ones also took to Facebook to share heartbreaking posts in memory of the teen.
‘Happy Birthday BabyGirl. We gonna miss you Zanie, just watch over us, I love you cousin,’ one person wrote.
A GoFundMe page has also been launched to raise money for her funeral.
The funeral will be held in Brosig Auditorium in Navasota on Saturday at 11am. A graveside service will take place at Oakland Cemetery.
According to Operation Lifesaver, 265 people were killed in railway accidents in 2016.
