HARDIN, Mo. — A community plans to gather in support of a young Hardin, Missouri, child while pushing for change.

Harper’s Law Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday evening in the community room at Hardin’s City Hall.

The committee is asking for additional safety measures, like added fencing, to be added near railroad crossings when the tracks run through towns and cities.

The group is named after 1-year-old Harper who died after she was hit by a train in Hardin, Missouri, shortly before 9 a.m. May 13.

Investigators said the little girl was standing or sitting on the railroad tracks near the 1st Street and Elm Street intersection when the train hit her.

The Ray County Sheriff’s office investigated the child’s death and said it was an accident.

“If they’ll build a fence to keep a cow in why won’t they build a fence to keep a child out,” Hardin Alderman Jared Shepard said.

“A four foot fence would have stopped it, that’s all that matters. If the railroad don’t want it to happen then I think the city should probably get involved and do something,” Shepard said.
“I’d like it to go across the U.S. it needs to be everywhere,” Shepard said.

“We want to fight for this fence to be put up so that other families will not go through what we are going through,” Harper’s parents said in a letter read aloud in the meeting.

“There isn’t a parent in here who hasn’t gone through that 30 seconds of fear when a child was just in their sights and is now not,” family friend Jodie Brown said.

“It is getting somewhere you guys are making an impact so keep doing it,” Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers said after speaking with lawmakers.