Genevieve Marcoux-Brochu and Linda Chevrette travelled home from Portugal as a group of two. They left behind their two friends Guylaine Boulanger and Elise Benard, who died after being struck by a train on Sept. 13. The group of four women were all friends and deaf. They were visiting a town east of Porto. “We wanted to take photos of the [landscape],” said Marcoux-Brochu. At some point, a train passed by on the nearby railroad, and that’s when Marcoux-Brochu realized two of her friends were no longer moving. They had been struck by the train. “I should have told them to come [elsewhere] with me, but it’s too late,” Marcoux-Brochu said. They say their friends were not taking a picture of the train, but they were distracted by the photos on their phones. There are reports that the train’s conductor sounded his horn and hit the brakes, but could not stop on time. “They should have moved to look at their photos further away, but I think they just stayed on the railway line too long,” Chevrette said. Marcoux-Brochu says cellphones play a role too. “The attraction to the cellphone, the fact that they were absorbed by their cellphones, taking pictures,” Marcoux-Brochu said. “I find that when you’re too absorbed by the cellphone, you forget about [your surroundings].” Marcoux-Brochu and Chevrette remember their late friends as great people who loved their families. They say both women were a big part of the deaf community.
