Petaluma woman killed after being hit by train near Truckee

A Petaluma woman was hit by a snow-plow train and killed on Dec. 25 near Truckee, and her son, a 24-year-old graduate of Casa Grande High School, was injured while trying to save her.

After leaving Royal Gorge cross-country ski resort in Soda Springs because it closed early for the day, Sydney Parks, 58, a nurse practitioner at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, and her son, Allen Young, decided to go for a walk near Truckee. They didn’t realize that they were walking on railroad tracks due to the snow accumulation, however, and after hearing a train whistle at around 3:30 p.m., they jumped off the tracks, but onto adjacent tracks on which a Union Pacific Railroad train was traveling, witnesses reported.

The engineer of the train tried to make an emergency stop, but the snow grille of the train, which was plowing snow off of the tracks, struck Parks and she was hurled some 25 feet.

“The train came around the curve, and Sydney lost her footing, and fell in front of it. Allen then jumped down to grab her, but the train still killed her,” said Roger Young, who is Allen’s father and previously was married to Parks.

Allen Young described his mother’s final seconds to the Press Democrat.

“She was opening and closing her eyes,” he said. “I told her I loved her and that I was OK, and that I would grow up to be a strong man and that I would take care of our family.”

Young also was hit by the train when he tried to rescue his mother, and suffered a broken arm and foot. He was taken to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, where he underwent surgery on his arm and foot.

“He was traumatized,” said Roger Young, a retired contractor who previously lived with Parks and his son in Petaluma before moving to Mount Shasta. “It’s just typical of him to try to save his mother the way he did.”

Allen Young was an outstanding swimmer at Casa Grande and at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied journalism and literature. He now lives in Davis and works as a journalist for School Innovations & Advocacy, a multifaceted education services company in Sacramento.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, said Keith Royal, sheriff-coroner of Nevada County.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)