More than a decade after a heartbreaking tragedy in Utah, the story of three teenage girls struck and killed by a train is resurfacing online — and the details are just as devastating today as they were in 2011.
The incident unfolded near the Covered Bridge Canyon crossing in Utah County, where 15-year-old Savannah Webster, her sister Kelsea, 13, and their friend Essa Ricker, 15, were spending the afternoon watching trains. According to Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon, the girls were well-known rail fans who often enjoyed taking photos near the tracks.
As a Utah Railway locomotive passed by, the teens smiled and waved at the crew — completely unaware that a second train from Union Pacific was barreling toward them from the opposite direction. Sgt. Cannon later explained that the two trains passed extremely close to each other, leaving only a three- or four-foot gap between them.
The teens were standing in that gap.
The impact was catastrophic. Investigators said Essa and Kelsea died instantly when the fast-moving eastbound train struck them. Savannah was still alive when first responders reached her, and she was immediately rushed into emergency surgery. Doctors fought to save her, but the damage to her brain was irreversible. Her family made the painful decision to remove life support once physicians confirmed she could not recover.
Savannah’s mother, Jayna Webster, shared her grief at the time in a post on her family blog, writing that the injuries were simply “too great” for her daughter to survive. She described Savannah as “an angel that walked among us.”
What makes the tragedy even more haunting is a Facebook post Savannah made just moments before the accident, joking about standing close to a train and calling the moment “awesome.” A photo taken seconds later shows the three smiling teens posing on the tracks — with the headlight of the oncoming train glowing behind them. None of the girls heard the horn.
John Anderson, a conductor on one of the trains that day, said the girls appeared completely unaware of the danger. He and engineer Michael Anderson repeatedly sounded the horn in an attempt to get their attention. But the noise of the other train and the distraction of taking photos drowned everything out.
“We watched helplessly,” John later recounted. “We saw them for maybe 12 seconds. Then they vanished from view when the impact happened.”
When the train finally halted, John ran toward the scene. He checked the first girl for a pulse — there was none. He moved to the second teen and discovered she, too, was gone. Then he found Savannah, gravely injured but still alive.
He knelt beside her and told her she would be okay, hoping to comfort her in her final moments. “She relaxed a little,” he recalled, saying he truly believed she might pull through.
The tragedy has since become a powerful reminder of how quickly danger can appear on railroad tracks — and how a single moment of distraction can change everything.