- April 23, 2024
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A southbound train struck and killed 18-year-old Ormond Beach resident Robert Harris May 15 by the Tomoka River Trestle.
According to a police report from the Ormond Beach Police, the train crew saw a person on the tracks and started sounding the whistle and applying the brakes. Harris got up, started running away from the train, fell down, regained his footing and continued running. The train then struck him.
Kris and Dean Crider live near the train tracks on North U.S. 1, and they heard the incident. They stood in front of the tracks after the crash and directed people away.
"We heard the boom," Kris Crider said, "and the screeching."
According to the incident report, Harris' friend Samuel Boatner found him on the tracks outside of River Grille restaurant. Boatner was supposed to pick him up after Harris got off work, but couldn't located him once he arrived at the restaurant. Boatner told police he noticed the train slowing down, and that Harris had sent him a message on Snapchat showing him on a train trestle bridge.
After attempts to call him and talking to the restaurant staff — who said they hadn't seen Harris since he clocked out — Boatner walked down the tracks and found Harris on the ground with one of the train crew members.
His father, also named Robert Harris, said he and his wife, Patricia Best, saw him earlier that day working at River Grille.
"She wanted to see him in a uniform," Harris said. "We were so proud of him. He had a very kind heart. I could tell by how many friends he always had around that he was doing something right."
John Mirabile had Harris as a student in his film and English classes at Seabreeze High School and said he was intelligent, funny, pleasant and witty.
"All the things you look for in a person," he said. "There are some kids that can talk to everybody, and they're rare. He was one of those kids. Everyone felt like they had a friend in him. That was his gift."
Harris was a junior at Seabreeze, and Mirabile said he enjoyed discussing different kinds of films with him.
"He was the person you looked forward to seeing every day. As a teacher, he made coming to school a lot more fun."
His father agreed.
"He was just the best you could ask for in a son."
