BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A teenager has died after she was hit by a Caltrain in Palo Alto, according to the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner.
Emily Fiedel, 17, of Palo Alto, was hit on Saturday, Aug. 9, around 9 p.m. just north of the East Charleston Road crossing.
The fatal strike was confirmed by Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman and Palo Alto police Lt. Craig Lee, and Fiedel’s identity was provided by the medical examiner yesterday.
Fiedel was a student at Gunn High School, spokeswoman Lynette White said in an email.
Fiedel is the seventh person to die on the tracks this year.
Caltrain also recorded deaths on Jan. 31, Feb. 8, March 4, June 24, July 17 and Aug. S, according to a fatality log provided by the agency.
Caltrain is no longer announcing when a train hits someone in an effort to stop copycat suicides.
Caltrain reported 10 deaths on the tracks in 2022, 15 deaths in 2023 and 19 deaths last year — the most since 2015.
The agency hired Chief Safety Officer Mike Meader in August 2023 to work on a safety plan that the board will consider approving at the end of the year.
If you or someone you know is having a mental health crisis, call or text the 24/7 suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.
It should not take two years and a million dollars to come up with a “safety plan” for the train tracks. CalTrain is not worth the life of one Palo Alto child.
Every life is too important. Palo Alto City hall is solely responsible for every death, due to their delays in grade seating the tracks from the street. Instead of building grade separation with state and federal funding, Palo Alto chose to sue HSR to prevent state funded grade separation over 20 years ago. All grade level road crossing should be closed until they can be fully separated. The city has never felt this is an urgent life safety issue.
These roads should never have been built across these tracks without grade crossings when Palo Alto changed from farms to suburban neighborhoods.
By the way, vastly more people in Palo Alto and the US are killed by motor vehicles on our roads and sidewalks. Why are these deaths not all reported in this paper, and what actions are we taking to protect the massive death toll of people on or streets and highways, This remains the leading non natural cause of death in the US.
Mountain View is supposed to start the Rengstorff underpass soon and that will be what the other intersections could look like. High fences and no way for suicides like this. I suppose San Antonio station could still see entries onto the tracks though..
They removed the person who sat at the crossings a few years ago. With the numbers up so high again, is there any consideration for adding them back?
are we supposed to have someone there 24/7?
All positivity to the family and friends.
The article implies this was an intention and not an accident, I am not sure what responsibility can be placed on Caltrain
Deaths like this, as sad as they are, should be in the news. Hopefully it will get the city councilors to fix this problem with grade separations, something we’ve talked about sibce the 1990’s. Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending these tragedies aren’t happening hasn’t changed anything.
I went to school with her.
I wasn’t particularly close to her but we spoke. We shared our first period class together my junior year, and I saw her very often whether it be in class or in the halls, most often without ever sharing a word between us. And even if it was it was just a “hi” or a wave.
I know she wasn’t particularly well liked, especially by those in her grade level. I remember meeting another friend of mine through a physical altercation between her and another student.
But now that shes gone? Silence. Hardly any words of this in Gunn, and hardly any words anywhere remembering who she was as a person. Only shifting blame onto Caltrain and the city of Palo Alto. She deserves that much. Even with how complicated her relationship with others students was, she at least deserves peers to acknowledge her life. To remember her instead of going about every day pretending she never existed.
You’re gone but, I remember you. And I will for as long as I live.
What a touching tribute K. Thank you for sharing those thoughts, those remembrances with the readers here. I believe that when people die by suicide, or even by natural deaths, emotions can overwhelm those who think and remember those who have passed.
Grief is often heart wrenching. While some might be consumed by guilt wondering if they might have done something to prevent the death, that is a normal reaction to the sense of loss. Grief is something academically defined by stages. Everyone should remember that they do not have to go through it alone. Life continues after the passing of people we know well, not so well and sometimes not at all. How lucky you were to have known Emily at all. Many may not have known her.
While there are a fair amount of resources available to support coping, and to navigate the stages of grief, memories can be a source of both comfort and strength. Those who have passed can live on in our memories, hearts and minds. Those who have passed can live on in how their memories inform us as we navigate our present and future.
I believe that you K, will do exactly what you committed to do in this comment. I believe you remember Emily, and will continue to do so as long as you live. I am hopeful those memories will bring you strength and inner peace. I thank you for the wisdom of your words that will undoubtedly bring peace and strength to others who are blessed to read your words.
I did not know Emily, yet I think you would have made her quite happy if she had read your words, and understood the sense of humanity that you have shared here. Again, thank you K. Heal well, fully and quickly. Be well.
K, I don’t know your intent in writing this and referring to her popularity but I want you to know (as a parent of another child who died on the tracks) it’s not helpful and us parents will read everything we can find online. Don’t add to their hurt!
Thank you K, that means a lot to those of us who loved her.
K
Thanks for your willingness to speak out about your feelings Everyone deserves to be acknowledged regardless of how they passed through this life
This is the second Palo Alto student this year—it’s an absolute travesty. Last year too we had a kid commit suicide. This is extremely worrying, the district needs to do something NOW to prevent another cluster situation.
“Social Capital” is a term that describes relationships that can provide advice, advocacy, introductions, connections, and much more to benefit individuals in various areas of life. It is a socio-economic, academic theory, in which the economic aspect is anything transactional, which does not mean only money. Social Capital involves networks that people can tap to learn about opportunities, improve social standing, access employment, and other socially beneficial resources. I believe that Social Capital can absolutely work preventatively to avoid future cluster situations.
Building social capital in schools and communities is a proactive and effective approach to suicide prevention. By fostering a sense of belonging, promoting positive relationships, equipping people with coping skills, encouraging help-seeking behaviors, and addressing social isolation, schools, parents and communities can create a supportive environment that safeguards the mental health and well-being of all, especially students. It is a shared responsibility.
Despite advances in technology and varying political climates, Robert Putnam, in his book titled “Bowling Alone” explained how age-irrelevant opportunities for the revival of social capital, through community initiatives, grassroots efforts, and policies that promote social inclusion and community development can benefit all humans, regardless of culture. Do a web search on any key words from my comments here and a world of opportunities can emerge. Responsibly for one another falls to each of us.
Born and raised 4th generation Palo Altan, graduate of Palo Alto High School thanking God my own children are not growing up in this environment. We got out and looking in from the outside at Palo Alto as an adult now, its heartbreaking to see what it’s become. This will only change when the parents in this town start valuing the lives of their children over their achievements. What was once a town with a healthy amount of drive and ambition surrounding a university intellectual culture is now littered with the bodies of its sons and daughters who with every advantage and the palm of the world in their hands decided it was such a horrid existence that they had to call it quits. Let these CHILDREN be children. Shame on the parents and shame on the district, this has been going on for 20 years now. Ever ask yourself why it only happens on the tracks in Palo Alto? The correlation is undeniable, and it’s completely unacceptable. Palo Alto’s dirty not so secret secret. Where is the courage a town like Palo Alto once had to stand up for what is right and actually do something about it? I fear that community is beyond repair as long as toxic achievement culture and the idolatry of the dollar remains the norm there will be no hope for a change.
This problem isn’t being solved because, every time it happens, a group of Palo Altans convince the local media not to report on these deaths. If a youth died in a car accident or on the job at McDonald’s, that would be all over the news. But these deaths go largely unreported. That’s because some people in the community believe the problem will go away if nobody talks about it. Plus, they worry the deaths will affect real estate values. We need to talk about these deaths. We can’t keep on ignoring them.
Jon, it sounds like Project Safety Net from about 10 years ago. They had a meeting at city hall and asked people for their suggestions. People from the audience went to the microphone and suggested anything that popped into their head. One guy said they should put “kid catchers” on trains, like cattle catchers, to scoop up the people trying to kill themselves. Everything was written down on a white board. Then this committee investigated all of these stupid ideas. In the end, they accomplished nothing. But everyone felt as if they accomplished something, which was probably the point of Project Safety Net — Make people feel better about themselves. Yet the suicides kept happening. It was a big failure. Let’s not re-invent the wheel with another Project Safety Net.
Sharon- Sorry. It looks like you misunderstood my intent and probably also what I have been working on (but I can see how that misunderstanding could have happened). I have been working on youth mental health and safety issues for a long time. I do not have all the answers but I have been asking a lot of questions and talking with many people.
The idea of the “Teen Mental Health Summit” is to get a group of professionals to make short presentations and we all sit down in small groups to discuss what issues we see as problems, what we think could help, etc. This would include students, teachers, community members, parents, etc, all mixed together into these groups…
Project Safety Net has done some good things. I’ve worked with them. But they tend to work more on catching the ones that are falling, as I was doing when I worked for CrisisTextLine and as most of the school therapists are doing. That’s great. But I prefer to focus on getting ahead of the problem, including with quality SEL programming in all the schools.
Regardless of my thoughts, I think it is important to hear from a variety of people. I speak with students all the time; not just those I teach/mentor. I would like more discussion and compassion between teens & adults. I facilitate this on a small-scale. I would like to see more of it on a larger scale, to build a more supportive community for the sake of everyone.
She was an amazing person. I will miss her very much.
It would be good to know what led Emily to make this decision. I’ve heard rumors that are quite sad. I don’t want to say what happened because I don’t have proof, but a journalist ought to dig into this. It doesn’t have anything to do with Gunn or academic pressure. Once I heard what happened, I realized that her doctors and various health officials would keep this hush, hush because it doesn’t fit their narrative. She’s apparently the second young person in our community to die under these circumstances in the past year. Let’s get the truth out there so that there isn’t a third.
I’ve heard the same rumors and there’s no way the doctors, therapists and counselors are going to talk about this. The family is going to wake up at some point and hold these people responsible for their child’s death.
I met Emily online two years ago and she was one of my best friends, I will miss her dearly
Please people, STOP. Take your rumors, blame etc and go home. This is a wonderful human who is well loved and there are lots of family and friends who do not need your blabber. Be Kind. Move on with your day.
This town is rotten from the inside out. The economic machine that keeps the realtors’ bank accounts full comes at the expense of children. The “good” schools keep the housing prices high. To me, a “good” school district isn’t one where kids kill themselves at this alarming rate. There can be no real solutions to this problem until the district gets real about the insanity going on in the schools. No sane parent would raise kids in this shameful district if they knew the reality of what’s happening here.