North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Officials in North Tonawanda have released the names of the three people killed this past Friday when the Dodge pickup truck they were traveling in was struck by an oncoming Amtrak train on Felton Street.
The three victims have been identified as 69-year-old David McMinn, 66-year-old Olive Geldart and 6-year-old Ra’Mari Geldart.
According to officials, the Dodge pickup the three were traveling in was struck just before 8 p.m. ET on Friday when they ended up being caught between the railroad crossing barriers before the Amtrak train came traveling through the intersection. They had stopped behind the scene of a traffic stop on Felton Street that saw a vehicle being towed.
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WBEN has learned that Ra'Mari was a student attending school at Buffalo Public School No. 90 in the City of Buffalo. The Buffalo Public School District has released the following statement following the death of Geldart:
"Superintendent Williams and the entire district extend their deepest and most sincere condolences and prayers to the families and friends of the 6-year-old who tragically lost his young life due to a train accident over the weekend. As this loss of such a young life has shocked and saddened our entire learning community, but particularly BPS 90, where the child attended school, Superintendent Williams directed the Crisis Prevention and Response Teams to be onsite first thing this morning to lead a faculty meeting and to provide the staff with empathic direction for the day and to assist students experiencing loss, grief, fear, or trauma with a goal of helping them begin to heal. Since BPS No. 90 serves very young students, these crisis prevention specialists are trained to work with young children to help them in developmentally appropriate supportive ways to better understand and cope with the sudden loss of a friend and classmate. The district will reach out to the family to offer condolences."
A GoFundMe page has been established to help assist the Geldart family in funeral expenses.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing.