Neighbors Mourn Fair Oaks Man Killed In BART Maintenance Accident
FAIR OAKS (CBS13) — Friends and family are mourning the death of a Fair Oaks man in Saturday's BART accident.
Neighbors were stunned and confused about the death of Larry Daniels, a contractor for BART who lived in Fair Oaks.
"I don't know, it was like my heart went out of me," said Sharan Fleming.
She and George Calderon knew Daniels as a good man and good neighbor since the early '90s.
"We first met him when we were moving in," she said. "He came over right away, and offered to help us carry everything in. He was always willing to help.
Daniels was a helpful guy and knew just about everything there was to know about track engineering. He had worked for every municipal light rail, train and trolley on the west coast, and most recently as a private contractor with BART.
"I would call him the ultimate engineer," Calderon said. "He was so exact about anything he did."
Even though Larry lived in Oakland and rented out his Fair Oaks home, Fleming says he still cared about his old neighborhood, and would check to make sure everything was alright.
Many on the block want to know what led to the deadly BART accident, and what else Larry could have done if his life hadn't been ended abruptly.
"He had so much to contribute," Fleming said. "To have that cut off, in the middle of his life is a very sad thing."
Daniels worked for public-transit systems in Detroit and Baltimore. He also wrote dozens of scholarly articles, and even a book on track engineering.
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