In 2011, three teenage girls—Essa Ricker, Kelsea Webster, and her sister Savannah—tragically lost their lives in Utah’s Spanish Fork Canyon while taking a selfie by train tracks.

Unaware of an approaching Union Pacific train, the girls were struck before they could react. Engineer John Anderson sounded the horn, but it was too late. “They were in their own little world,” he recalled, watching in horror as the train neared.

After stopping the train, John found Essa and Kelsea dead. Thirteen-year-old Savannah was critically injured and later died in the hospital from severe brain trauma.

Before the accident, Savannah had posted on Facebook: “Standing right by a train ahaha this is awsome!!!! \[sic].”

Both train operators, fathers themselves, were devastated. Kelsea and Savannah’s mother called the tragedy preventable and urged others to heed rail safety warnings to avoid similar heartbreak.