Paul Dibene stood outside his wife’s Riverside house Monday, holding their 2-year-old daughter, saying he was not surprised she pushed the child off the railroad tracks to save the little girl’s life, sacrificing her own.
“She told me her daughter was her life. In the end, she not only lived for her daughter, she died for her daughter,” Dibene, 36, said about their child, Paris, who fidgeted in his arms, swinging her feet.
The toddler, wearing bright-yellow plastic sandals and a matching T-shirt , smiled when he put her down so she could play.
Around 7 p.m. Saturday, Susan Dibene, 33, had been pushing Paris in a stroller across the tracks at Mary Street near Indiana Avenue in Riverside. Police said Susan Dibene tried to cross even though the railroad warning lights were flashing and the crossing arms were down.
Then, a stroller wheel became lodged in the tracks.
Susan Dibene managed to dislodge the stroller and push Paris to safety, but not soon enough to escape the westbound Metrolink train, witnesses said.
The couple had recently begun custody proceedings related to an impending divorce, but Dibene still wore his sliver wedding ring Monday as he clutched one of about 35 albums full of photos taken by his wife.
She was a poet, artist, florist and photographer who chronicled their lives through pictures, he said.
And he honors and admires his wife for her courage, he said.
“She could have panicked like a deer in headlights, and my daughter could have gone with her. It just speaks volumes. I know how much her daughter meant to her,” Dibene said.
He was at his mother’s 60th birthday party when the accident happened.
Should the government do more to make railroad crossings safer?
No, millions have already been spent on safety precautions that go ignored -- people should simply stay off the tracks.
Only if they can do so without becoming so invasive they make travel more difficult
Each crossing should undergo its own safety assessment - some crossings may require more precautions than others.
In the long run saving even just one life should warrant whatever costs it takes to make crossings safer.
Yes, more money should be spent to create better grade separation and more restrictive fencing.
After the initial shock, he briefly questioned why his wife put their daughter in danger, venturing onto the tracks despite warning lights and crossing arms. On Monday, he said he knew she would have gotten across safely had the stroller wheel not become stuck.
The couple had met at a church in Chino where Dibene said he noticed his wife’s love of Christ displayed through tattoos of Jesus and Mary on her arms and through a missionary trip she took to Nigeria.
He also remembered her pictures, noting she even took photos of their first date.
“That was her passion. We have our life in photos. She wanted to preserve the memories and the moments we had together,” Dibene said of the dozens of photo albums they planned to give Paris when she turned 18.
He started to cry when talking about how his daughter will grow up without a mother.
“I know the role a mother plays in a child’s life. She won’t have a mother for the first day of school, when she gets married, the firsts of everything. Those are what I’m going to miss most,” Dibene said.
Paris remembers the train and being pushed out of the way, but little else, Dibene said. When asked, the little girl said her mommy was at work.
On Thursday, when Paris normally stays with her mother, he knows he’ll have to explain something to his daughter.
California leads the country in fatalities of pedestrians trespassing on railroad tracks, according to Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Aaron Hunt.
Last year, 66 people died while crossing tracks in California, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Some safety experts say there is little more they can do besides education and prevention.
Local police and sheriff’s department stings have shown that trespassers who risk crossing against warning signs often do so because they’re pressed for time or they think they can make it across.
“I think people take chances in life that we all know you shouldn’t do, but yet they still do them,” said Lena Kent, spokeswoman for BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks where Dibene died.
