Overview

• The victims were identified as Essa Ricker and Kelsea Webster, both 15, and Kelsea’s 13-year-old sister, Savannah, in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah.
• The locomotive crew—conductor John Anderson and engineer Michael Anderson—saw the girls, sounded warnings and applied emergency braking from about 40 mph.
• The train stopped roughly 400 meters beyond the sighting point, where two girls were found dead and Savannah was critically injured, with some reports saying she died days later in hospital.
• A Facebook post attributed to Savannah moments earlier read, “Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!”, underscoring risky photo-taking near active tracks.
• Union Pacific’s safety messaging and the girls’ mother’s comments cast the crash as preventable and urge the public to stay away from rail lines.