Train wreck claims infant

Week-old boy was thrown from car

RALEIGH -- The infant who miraculously survived a train-car collision on Friday died Saturday from injuries sustained in the crash.

Skylar Brady of Johnston County died at WakeMed in Raleigh, hospital spokeswoman Maria Fry said.

He was one week old.

Skylar had been in critical condition after the accident at the Herring Road railroad crossing near U.S. 70 west of Princeton.

The passenger-side collision with a Norfolk Southern freight train killed Skylar's parents, Brannon Worth Brady, 25, and his fiancee, Crystal Lee Higgins, 22, both of 172 Herring Road in Princeton.

They were taking Skylar to his first medical checkup.

Witnesses told the Highway Patrol that the couple's white Cadillac was moving slowly but did not appear to make a full stop at the railroad crossing.

Skylar, in the back seat with his mother, was thrown free of the car.

A short time later, Stacey Jones, a former rescue worker who lives nearby, arrived and found the boy's empty car seat. Jones began looking for a child and found Skylar in the grass about 200 yards from the crash site.

Skylar died about 4:20 p.m. Saturday. His four grandparents were at his side, said the Rev. Jimmy Earp, who spoke on their behalf.

"The overwhelming response from everyone has just been amazing," he said. "I guess any time something traumatic like this happens, good people just crawl out of the woodwork."

The families passed on a message, he said: "If people could just learn something from this -- how quick we can leave this world. And be prepared.

"If you can imagine to lose both your parents. The grandparents have lost their child and their grandchild. They wanted to send out the warning: 'Be careful, be wise and be ready.' "

The funeral date has not been set. Arrangements are pending at Parrish Funeral Home in Princeton.

The Herring Road crossing, which sees about 200 vehicles a day, has no signals or gates to warn of coming trains but is on a list of crossings to receive them, state officials said Friday. There is no record of previous accidents at the Herring crossing.

The planned signals and gates are part of a three-year, $7.6 million campaign by the state, the N.C. Railroad Co. and Norfolk Southern to upgrade Eastern North Carolina rail crossings. There are more than 1,000 such crossings in North Carolina with no mechanical warning devices.