A video out of Fairport has been making the rounds online, and if you’ve seen it, you probably felt your stomach drop a little. It shows a group of young teens dancing on railroad tracks as a train barrels toward them, with one kid sprinting across just seconds before it passes. It’s the kind of clip that makes you want to reach through the screen and pull them back yourself.
Fairport Police Chief Andrew Whitaker confirmed his department identified the kids involved, who are reportedly around 12 and 13 years old. Rather than treating this as a criminal matter, the department took a different approach, working with CSX railroad officers to make sure the message landed where it mattered most: at home, with the parents.
For those unfamiliar with the area, Fairport is a small village near Rochester, New York, and railroad crossings run right through the heart of town. That makes this story feel especially close to home for longtime residents who’ve grown up watching trains roll through without a second thought. Seeing kids treat those same tracks like a playground is enough to rattle anyone who understands just how quickly things could have gone wrong…