Train Tragedy

I think this woman's daughter got hit by a train.

Or maybe it was this boy's girlfriend. I don't know. Either way, four kids were crossing a train bridge over the Nueces River when they heard the engine coming. Two of them ran back south the way they came. Two ran north to the other side. The two that ran north weren't going to make it. One jumped off the bridge into the water. The other, a teenage girl, was hit by the train. Her body was later recovered from the river.

There was some questions in the newsroom on how we should run the grieving photos, or if they should run at all. The people refused to be identified and no one on the scene would confirm if they were the family of the deceased. But the photos were compelling. Couple that with a slow news day and you can justify just about anything.

It was an uneasy scene, to say the least. I felt terrible every time I lifted my camera. Occasionally they would look back at me through my long glass and glare in disgust before turning and weeping some more. Just don't put your camera down, I thought. I was afraid there would be issues when I got back to the newsroom, but I couldn't worry about that. Shoot it all, sort it out later, I kept thinking. So I kept shooting.