Three friends overlooked a chilling detail in a selfie that could have saved their lives.
It’s common for a group of friends to be so engrossed in capturing a photo that they nearly forget everything else around them. Unfortunately, the outcomes are rarely as severe as when a trio of girls from Utah lost their lives under truly heartbreaking circumstances.
The event, which shook a local community, occurred in 2011, when teens Essa Ricker, Kelsea Webster, and Kelsea’s younger sister Savannah ventured beyond the Covered Bridge Canyon crossing, just a few minutes from Spanish Fork.
Utah County sheriff Sgt Spencer Cannon later described how the three friends paused to wave at engineers on the Utah Railway train, completely oblivious to the fact that a Union Pacific train was approaching from the opposite direction.
The distance between the two trains was merely three to four feet, and Essa, Kelsea, and Savannah were all hit. Essa and Kelsea were thought to have died instantly, while Savannah was taken to the hospital for urgent medical care.
Tragically, she had suffered severe brain injuries. After doctors informed her devastated parents that she would not recover, life support was turned off.
“Today, we had a conversation with the doctors, and they let us know that Savvy’s brain injuries were too severe,” Jayna Webster, the mother of Savannah and Kelsea, shared at that moment.
“Despite all their efforts, Savannah won’t be able to make any further recovery. We will keep her on life support until the end of the day, but it’s time to say goodbye, for now, to an angel who walked among us.”
A haunting selfie taken just moments before the trio was hit by the train was posted on Facebook by Savannah.
“Standing right next to a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!” the teenager wrote.
Even more unsettling, the photo in question depicts a train approaching, its bright yellow lights shining intensely. Unfortunately, it’s believed that the girls did not hear the train’s horn blaring.
John Anderson, a train conductor on duty at the time, remarked: “They were in their own little world.”
“We watched in horror as we got closer,” John continued. “We saw them for about 12 seconds until they vanished from our view and the train kept moving forward.”
When the train finally stopped, John leaped down onto the tracks and rushed to the girls. He quickly discovered that the first two girls he reached had no pulse.
Savannah was still alive, albeit seriously injured.
“I told her everything would be alright and she seemed to relax a bit,” the conductor remembered.
“I hoped she would pull through and for some reason, I really believed she would.
