[GreatBriton]

September 2005
The Mirror

MUM LEAPS IN FRONT OF TRAIN WITH HER KIDS

Daughter, 5, and son, 2, die with her in 100mph horror

By Tom Pettifor


A MOTHER flung herself and her two children into the path of a 100mph train yesterday.

Her 23-month-old son was in her arms and she was holding the hand of her five-year-old daughter.

The mum, 27, and girl were killed instantly by the impact at Southall station, West London.

Her son suffered multiple injuries and died in hospital. Up to a dozen bystanders saw the mother, who was Asian, standing on the platform with the two children. Seconds later they watched dumb-struck as she threw herself and the infants into the path of the oncoming Heathrow express.

The driver braked, but only came to a halt a quarter of a mile down the track.

The distraught railman told accident investigators: "I was approaching the station at 100mph when I saw these people on the platform.

"I knew the person was going to jump and put on the brake, but I wasn't able to stop in time."


The mother was believed to be from the Southall area, which is home to one of Britain's biggest Asian communities. Last night her distraught husband was being comforted by police.


Eighty-five passengers were aboard the airport train, which takes 15 minutes from Paddington to Heathrow, west of the capital.


Several needed treatment for shock and all were kept on the train for nearly three hours while the dreadful aftermath of the incident was dealt with. One traveller said: "We had just gone through Southall station when the brakes slammed on. There was thick smoke, which must have come from the brakes."


The station was closed until 7.50pm while police carried out a forensic search.


Body parts were strewn for a considerable distance.


Train schedules were severely disrupted, with only half of trains out of Paddington leaving as planned.


Four hours after the horror, police wheeled a yellow and blue buggy belonging to the family away from the scene. At about 6.10pm, two bodies were carried from the station on stretchers and placed in the back of a black estate car.


The 23-month-old boy had died in Ealing Hospital, two hours after his mother's plunge, from "massive multiple injuries".


Chief Insp Willie Baker, of the British Transport Police, said: "We are supporting the family with trained liaison officers. This is a very serious and very sad incident.


"We have already put a dedicated team of detectives in to make sure we find out exactly what happened."


Police were examining CCTV of the platform and film from cameras believed to have been fitted on the front of the train. Tapes from a newsagent's at the station were also checked.


Last night Southall's close-knit community was in mourning. Javeed Singh, steward at a Sikh temple, said: "At times like this we all share in the pain. We don't know the victims personally but we have all prayed for them here.


"Two young children and a young mother have died and that can't be right.


"A father and husband has lost his loved ones and our thoughts are with him and his family.


"I cannot imagine what must have driven the woman to do something like that."


In September 1997, seven people were killed and 150 hurt when a Great Western express and a freight train collided at Southall station.

mirror.co.uk

[JayRoc]

Good grief! That is terrible.

[Canadian_Mind]

What the fuck? maby the mopther had problems, but that does not give her the right to take her kids with her. I'm not against a person taking their own life, its their right to do so, but taking someone else with you... especially your own children, its just terrible.

[canucker]

It's awful. Obviously she wasn't in her right mind when she decided the only answer was to end her children's lives as well as her own. Let us know if the reason for her murder-suicide comes out in subsequent articles GreatBriton, I'm curious to know.

[SensibleCanuck]

My Mother took her own life when I was a child. I wish she would have taken me with her because she left me (& a younger brother) behind with an abusive tyrant for a father. I regreted every moment of my life living with him until he threw me out at 17. I should have killed the bastard. Shitty foster care would have been a cakewalk.

[alieth1]

I wonder why she killed herself and her kids...maybe SensibleCanuck here is right. Maybe the father was abusive and that was the only way she saw to save them.

[SensibleCanuck]

Thanks for that alieth1. I guess my point is that there are always two sides to the story. The media can often appear one sided if they don't get the full story. I know this might sound harsh, but I get bored of hearing people say things like "that's terrible". I have a pet peeve about bleeding heart liberalism. The majority of us have been conditioned to act like we care. This is a problem with Canadians because we are passive & allow people such as auto insurance brokers to shit on us. I would like nothing more than to see greedy money ho's get SLAMMED by a harsh economic downturn.

[canucker]

That scenario did occur to me as well. But there are other options for her than killing her children along with herself, and IMO it isn't fair to them.

[PostManPat]

...damn i wish i hadn't read that

[Scarecrow]

What. The. Hell.

I hate it when stuff lke this happens.

[ShepherdsDog]

There seems to be a bit of a double standard here. When a father murders his family, he's a vile, self centered monster thinking only of himself and that it's a control issue. He's cursed by all who hear of the tragedy as a vile monster. Yet when a mother does it, immediately people start thinking it's the result of an abusive husband, or she's the victim of a hormonal imbalance who is not responsible for actions. It seems that she is automatically given the role of a victim too. Anyone who does this to their children is a horrible monster and if there is a hell, they deserve to burn and suffr for eternity, for murdering their children.

[alieth1]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

There seems to be a bit of a double standard here. When a father murders his family, he's a vile, self centered monster thinking only of himself and that it's a control issue. He's cursed by all who hear of the tragedy as a vile monster. Yet when a mother does it, immediately people start thinking it's the result of an abusive husband, or she's the victim of a hormonal imbalance who is not responsible for actions. It seems that she is automatically given the role of a victim too. Anyone who does this to their children is a horrible monster and if there is a hell, they deserve to burn and suffr for eternity, for murdering their children.

Perhaps you see that, but whatever the situation is, I like to get both sides of the story. Maybe it was an abusive husband. Maybe the wife was a deranged killer. Maybe she couldnt take her children's whining. We'll never know. But for now, I lend towards the possibly that the husband was abusive. Reasoning behind that is because a mother usually won't kill her child unless it is the safest way because of the mother's maternal instincts.

[ShepherdsDog]

And post partum psychosis is a maternal instinct? I agree that we need to hear the entire story before drawing conclusions, but too often the scenarios I mentioned above are the ones people paint on the situation before all facts are known.

[alieth1]

I still hold to that the mother acted out of fear for her children and she most likely HONESTLY believed that what she did was better for her children. Im not saying Im right. Im saying that until all the facts are known, I THINK this MIGHT be right.

[LABBATTS50]

You are FUCKED if you think this is better for the children if the father is abusive. THIS IS 2005!! The mother has ways and options to deal with things tht DO NOT INCLUDE muredering he FUCKING children. This is absolutely distusting. I hope that bitch rots in hell.