As a resident of Mansfield attending college in New Hampshire, it is unsettling when I receive phone calls from family and friends back home telling me yet another person has been killed by a train.

Last January, a 15-year-old boy was killed by the Acela train speeding through Mansfield.

On March 13, the Acela killed another man and injured two others who were inspecting the tracks just outside a Providence train station.

People can say all they want about how walking on the tracks is against the law and that people who get hit are trespassers, but he was working. Can the lines of communication be so faulty that someone whose job is to work on train tracks gets hit by a train?

On May 29, a 45-year old man was struck by the Acela 120 yards from the Attleboro station. He was walking on the tracks and, a witness stated, bent down to pick something up and looked up to see a train roaring towards him at nearly 140 mph. Fortunately, he escaped with only a broken arm. On Sept. 6, a 21-year-old woman with whom I attended school was tragically killed by an MBTA commuter train. On Nov. 8, a 55-year-old woman was struck by the Acela train at the Mansfield station.

Oddly enough, on March 1, The Sun Chronicle reported a resident had gotten the MBTA to do away with the policy that required all trains to blow their whistles upon entering a train station. Well, congratulations. Since then, at least six people have been hit and three are dead.

In the case of the Attleboro man, the blowing of the whistle did save his life. But think of how many other injuries and deaths could be prevented.

What I really feel stations need, particularly the Mansfield station, is gates along platforms.

As a traveler on the MBTA commuter rail, I can remember many times this past summer hearing the infamous "Train approaching. Please remain behind yellow line" echoing in the background. As I approached the platform, seeing what I thought was my Boston-bound commuter train in the distance, I stood behind the yellow line as I was told. Instead of the slow crawling purple monster of a train, the 100 mph Acela busts through the station without a care for the people standing on the side of the platform. There should at least be a warning "ACELA TRAIN APPROACHING! GET THE HELL OFF THE PLATFORM!"

I remember a time that I was standing behind that stupid yellow line next to a young couple with their infant. I think everyone on the platform was expecting our commuter train; instead it was the Acela barreling through. The young man sheltered his wife who was holding their baby as the carriage that stood next to them rattled violently next to them on the platform.

What would be really great to see would be gates along the platform farther back than the useless yellow line that are locked and only open when a train approaches and actually stops.

The first trains that were created may have been huge and still deadly, but they were not 150-mph trains.

Technology advancements are great, but we really need to also update our safety standards if things like this are created. Whistles should be blown, gates should be up, and fences should always surround tracks. We need to stop another family from going through the heartache of losing a loved one to a speeding train. The thing is, we can stop it. Someone just needs to try.

KRISTEN ROMANKO is a Mansfield resident.