Baby Dies After Being Struck by Train in Missouri

A train has fatally struck a 1-year-old girl in Missouri, according to a state highway patrol crash report.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) said the toddler was killed on a railway track by Elm Street in Hardin, northeast of Kansas City, at about 8:48 a.m. on Saturday, May 13.

In a crash report seen by Newsweek, an MSHP spokesperson said: "Crash occurred as a child was stationary on railroad tracks and struck by vehicle 1." They added that the BNSF 2009 GE train was heading eastbound when it fatally struck the child.

There were 970 motor-vehicle traffic accident fatalities in Missouri in 2021, according to the legal firm Patterson Legal Group Injury Lawyers. This represented a slight fall from 987 in 2020 in the state.

In 2021, there were 3,816 children between 1 and 4 years old who died in the U.S. When the death rate was adjusted, it found 25 children in that age range died out of every 100,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the leading causes of death for children aged 1 to 4 were accidents, congenital malformations, and homicide.

Police officers with the Ray County Sheriff's Office carried out an investigation following the incident between the railroad train and the toddler. RCSO Sheriff Scott Childers said in a Facebook post published on Saturday that the office would not be making any statements about the incident.

The post read: "Today the sheriff's office along with multiple agencies worked a tragic event in Hardin. At this time we will not be making any statements. We ask you pray for all affected by today's event and respect their privacy."

Police did not comment on whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the young girl's death.

Since the post was shared online, many people commented and shared their sympathies with the girl's family.

Newsweek has contacted the MSHP for comment via email.

There have been numerous tragic cases across the U.S. where young children have been killed after being struck by a vehicle.

In April, a boy in Missouri died after he fell from a tractor onto a roadway where he was then run over by the same vehicle. The MSHP stated the incident took place in Lincoln County and that the child was a passenger in the John Deere 8230 tractor.

"Vehicle 1 was traveling on a gravel roadway on private property in Lincoln County, Missouri. The door of vehicle 1 [the tractor] was ajar. Passenger 1 was ejected and run over by vehicle 1," the report stated.