Those who investigated this who I was privy to were pretty sure, and it was mentioned in several other stories at the time, as to why she may have "nodded out", dude..... It's sort of like napping.

This can happen innocently sometimes, too, and it is tragic and awful. But, she was already going to be punished for the rest of her life, and in the end, I think that they probably felt they probably couldn't get a jury to convict her, based on that cause.

Mom of the year, though.....even back in 1997, right dude?

I guess they could have argued to a jury that maybe, that the evil train had somehow magically swerved off the tracks to hunt down and kill those poor kids. Since it obviously wasn't her fault, and obviously Metrolink and the taxpayers are responsible for this, because she wasn't negligence. A claim does not make a case.....

I don't know the final resolution of this horrible occurrence, I seem to recall that she was arrested and may have been charged for this (level of charges uncertain... child endangerment or more?), which is the reason the other kid was taken away.

I do want to note, that that this tragedy would seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with explanations that involve racist horsecrap from a loser troll. It is just another tragic example of parents who don't seem to have the proper skillset to keep their kids safe, especially around the choo-choo tracks....

I really do like the photo the Commenter supplied, as some very good evidence, to support that lack of "SMART parenting skills" hypothesis I put forward, as the likely cause of any child getting stuck in the gap on SMART.