DERRY, Pa. -- The train's horn sounded and people nearby shouted warnings to Sheila Singer
as she crossed train tracks with her children in Derry Borough, Westmoreland County.
Now, Singer's fiance is trying to explain to his 4-year-old daughter why her mother and 2-year-old brother, John, are gone.
"I've been telling Mindy that mummy and John John's with great-grandma up in Heaven," Elmer Smart told Channel 4 Action News anchor Sally Wiggin on Monday. "And she keeps telling me, 'We'll make it, daddy. Me, you and K.K. will make it.'"
Video: 
Watch Bob Mayo's ReportWTAE Channel 4's Bob Mayo reported that a wreath lay in tribute at the tracks near East Second Street, with a message, "In loving memory of Sheila and John John."
Police said they believe the mother first walked 4-year-old Mindy and her infant sister, Elisha, across the tracks before going back for her son, who was in a stroller.
Smart said the weight of some groceries may have caught the stroller on the tracks as Singer was walking home from a nearby store.
"She must have seen the train coming, she couldn't get the stroller, she tried to get loose, but she must have been in trying to get Johnny out," Smart said. "He was strapped in in the back one. Nobody realized there was someone else in there. They thought she was trying to get the groceries out, and meanwhile, she was trying to get him out."
Sandra Short said she had just lent Singer $50 to buy groceries on the other side of the tracks that cut through Derry, and she came running when her child alerted her that Singer was struggling to free the stroller from the tracks.
"She hollered back at me, she said, 'The stroller's stuck. I can't get it off.' That (sic) was the last words she said. Then, the train hit her," Short said. "I told her, I said, 'Sheila, please don't go across the tracks.' And, she said, 'I have to,' and, I said, 'Can I watch the kids?' She said, 'No, I got the kids.'"
"The female was thrown approximately 50 feet from the point of impact. The child was thrown much further than that and had actually got swept under the train," Deputy Coroner Chris O'Leath said on Friday.
"That was the last exact words that she said. She said, 'I ain't leaving my babies. My babies got stuck and I ain't leaving them.' She said, 'I can't get off the tracks,'" Short said.
Short comforted her friend's other children who were not in the accident.
"She was crying, 'I want my mommy, I want my mommy,' and she tried to go over to her mom but I wouldn't let her. I held her back because I didn't want her to see her mom in that shape," Short said. "She was a very loving and caring person for her kids. She more or less died for her kids to save them but she couldn't save one."
Smart and Singer shared three children and had once lived in Greensburg together. They separated for a time, but they got back together in July and Singer moved to Derry, reuniting Mindy, John and Elisha with their father.
"She was a very good mother. Them kids are well-behaved," Smart said. He also has ideas of how he wants the train crossing, which is often used by neighbors, to be made safer.
"Finish off the section of fence on the one side where everybody comes from, or do what they got down -- I guess it's Willow Crossing, from what I hear -- they got a regular walk path to cross the tracks with the arms that comes down when trains come," he said.
Trick-Or-Treaters Aware Of Dangers Surrounding Train Tracks
On Halloween, one night after the train incident, the children of Derry were wary of sudden dangers surrounding the tracks that cut through town.
"We're all scared. I'm not allowed near them. A lot of people aren't, but we don't even want to be near them," said Blaise Kepple, a trick-or-treating.
Video:Derry Officials Working To Prevent Future Train Accidents"We're all really nervous about it because we don't want anybody hurt," said Abigail Greene, a trick-or-treater. "This is the third time that something (has) happened lately, since June."
In July,
a 15-year-old boy was struck and killed by a train after leaving a grocery store in Derry.
But it's adults in Derry who often have no fear of the train tracks' danger.
"I cut across there with my own kids and my dog," said Patrick Hough, of Derry, who said he will continue to cross the tracks.
Others, like Shane and Julie Beeman, said they will also continue to cross the tracks. Shane Beeman says he crosses the tracks every day, and Julie Beeman said she crosses when it's cold, saying, "It's a quick way to get home."
Derry police were on watch on Halloween to ensure the tragedy is not immediately repeated.
On Saturday, Derry's police chief made it clear that he was told by the mayor and council previously not to cite people for crossing at the track at the scene behind the Dollar General store on South Chestnut Street. He said, going forward in the wake of this tragedy, citations may be issued.
Derry Mayor Susan Bortz said her town has a bigger challenge.
"I think it's another attitude of 'that will never happen to me,' when, obviously, it does happen to people," Bortz told Mayo on Saturday.
PennDOT, Norfolk Southern and Bortz said they plan to hold a meeting to discuss the securing the train tracks.
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