Yazmin White an eleven year old Haines City, Florida girl dies after being struck by an Amtrak train while looking at her phone despite train’s effort to warn her.
Yazmin White an eleven year old Haines City, Florida girl has died after being struck by an Amtrak train while looking at her phone.
The girl’s death is thought to be the result of having been looking down at her phone, while wearing earbuds unaware of an impending train as she crossed train tracks.
ABC Action News reported the 11 year old girl having left Carmelita’s Food Mart in Haines City and walking through the woods, when she tried to cross over railroad tracks at an intersection.
The Amtrak train’s conductor told Polk County Sheriff’s Office that he immediately slammed on the breaks and blew the horn repeatedly for a quarter of a mile trying to alert White.
But she was distracted and didn’t notice the train.
The train, with 12 passengers on board, was traveling southbound at 68mph when it hit the teenager.
White was pronounced dead at the scene.
Yazmin White had taken a shortcut after buying sweets to share with her brother:
Told a statement via Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, ‘…And never, ever heard the train until the absolute last seconds when she looked up and it was too late and she tried to jump off of the tracks,’
Adding, ‘We are completely heartbroken and send our deepest condolences to Yazmin White’s family.’
‘This is a tragedy no parent or family should ever have to go through. Please keep them in your prayers.’
At the time of Yazmin’s death a report via fox13news told of the eleven year old having stopped by a confectionary store to buy sweets to share with her 9 year old brother when she decided to take a short cut on her way home.
The principal of Davenport School of the Arts where Yazmin attended said the eleven year old was a talented musician and was a piano major at the school.
Yazmin transferred to the magnet school at the start of year to study piano, where she was regarded as a ‘natural’ talent. She’d been expected to return back to school the day after her death following the Christmas holidays. Killed literally a few hundred feet before making it home.
