By Sadef Ali Kully
The LIRR Hollis station, is dark, unsecure and the tracks have several access points, including a now repaired broken fence, which is next to an auto repair shop at Sagamore Avenue in Hollis.
The repair in the fence came after a 29-year old man and woman from Hollis were fatally struck by a train July 9 after trespassing a little before 3 a.m. in the morning onto the westbound tracks near 193rd Street and Jamaica Avenue, according to MTA officials.
Authorties identifed the pair as Leanna Belcher, 29, and Booker Favors, 29, the two victims in the latest of railroad accidents in the tri-state area.
The 1:46 a.m. train to Penn Station from Ronkonkoma hit the pair as it was pulling into the Holls station.
“We are working here every day and you don’t hear the train until it’s really close. It comes in real fast – fast enough that you can’t hear it coming – then you hear a whistle and boom, it’s here,” said Dennis Huston, one of the auto mechanics at the Huston Brothers On The Spot auto repair shop. “Those kids did not hear that train coming until it was too late.”
Huston said people walking on or along tracks was not an uncommon sight.
“These youths, some use it for thrills and other for a short cut to the park near 203rd. Sometimes they jump on top of our shop roof. You see them running all over the place. It is not unusual.”
Booker and Belcher were about 200 feet east of the platform at the Hollis station along the westbound track when they were both hit at about 2:47 a.m., railroad officials said.
It was unclear why Belcher and Booker were on the tracks, but the incident did not appear to be criminal or suicidal in nature, MTA officials said.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical services personnel and the medical examine’s office is conducting autopsies. It could be weeks before an investigation is completed, according to officials.
Huston said that most of the time, the human traffic he saw so late at night on the track involved prostitutes and drug addicts.
“It’s very rare to see regular people on the tracks so late at night – you see the kids running around, but things become real quiet after 11 p.m.,” Huston said.
On the day of the accident the train was held at the scene for the investigation. There were no other reported injuries, train passengers were transferred to another train and service was back to normal around 8 a.m. that morning, MTA officials said.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
