Photo: Facebook / Fresno Police Department
A 44-year-old mother of 2 from Fresno, California, was in such a rush to have her kids board a bus that she forced them to crawl under an idle freight train, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said at a press conference this week, according to People Crime.
This wasn’t the first time it happened, either. While Joy Frances Collins seemed to have made a habit out of putting her kids at risk, this time, it was different: her 8-year-old daughter got scared and didn’t get out from under the train fast enough, so she was run over.
According to Dyer, the train was idle for a mere 12 seconds. The tragedy could have been prevented if Collins had waited just a while longer, but she seemed convinced her kids would miss the bus. So she instructed them to crawl under the train, while shouting at them to “Hurry up.”
The boy went first and got out the other side safely, but the girl got spooked. That brief hesitation ended up costing her her life: Dyer says she was pinned under the train and dragged for about 500 feet. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Collins was arrested and is facing the charge of child neglect causing death.
“A mother placed her daughter in a position where she could be seriously injured or killed, and that’s what we have to look at,” Dyer said at the press conference. “We have a responsibility to hold that person accountable.”
“Upon being encouraged by the mother to cross the track, [the girl] too made her way underneath the rail car and attempted to get to the other side,” Dyer continued. “We know that [the mother] is hurting. I hope people understand that there is a balance that we have to achieve in law enforcement. No one last night wanted to arrest the mother for this crime but the law is the law.”
According to Dyer, the train was idle for a mere 12 seconds. The tragedy could have been prevented if Collins had waited just a while longer, but she seemed convinced her kids would miss the bus. So she instructed them to crawl under the train, while shouting at them to “Hurry up.”
The boy went first and got out the other side safely, but the girl got spooked. That brief hesitation ended up costing her her life: Dyer says she was pinned under the train and dragged for about 500 feet. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Collins was arrested and is facing the charge of child neglect causing death.
“A mother placed her daughter in a position where she could be seriously injured or killed, and that’s what we have to look at,” Dyer said at the press conference. “We have a responsibility to hold that person accountable.”
“Upon being encouraged by the mother to cross the track, [the girl] too made her way underneath the rail car and attempted to get to the other side,” Dyer continued. “We know that [the mother] is hurting. I hope people understand that there is a balance that we have to achieve in law enforcement. No one last night wanted to arrest the mother for this crime but the law is the law.”
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