Fox Chapel grad, killed in Vermont accident, described as selfless and kind

A Fox Chapel man was killed Tuesday in Vermont after being hit by an Amtrak train as he attempted to cross railroad tracks in the SUV he was driving.

Thomas Fennell, who had been attending Vermont Law School, was 23.

Police in Royalton, about 150 miles northwest of Boston, said that Fennell had crossed the tracks, backed his SUV into a driveway to turn around, and was attempting to cross back when he was hit about 11:30 a.m.

The intersection was not marked with gates, police said.

Fennell grew up in Fox Chapel and graduated from Fox Chapel Area High School before pursuing his undergraduate degree at UCLA.

He hoped to go into environmental law, his brother, Lucas, said on Thursday.

“He was passionate about learning ways to make the world a better and more just place,” he said. “He wanted to know what he was doing would have an impact.”

Even as children, Lucas Fennell said, Tomi would defend his brothers when they got in trouble and protect them.

“He was always a defender of what was right and just even if it was unpopular.”

Lucas described his brother as selfless, kind and intelligent.

“He’d always stand up for the right thing no matter what everyone else was doing,” Lucas Fennell said. “He wouldn’t just follow the herd.”

Since his brother’s death, Lucas Fennell said he has heard from many people who considered him to be a role model regardless of their age.

“He had a deep sense of empathy and care about people who were unlike himself.”

Fennell loved to read and play basketball, his brother said.

Lucas and Thomas Fennell were senior members of the Fox Chapel boys tennis team that finished with a 20-1 record in 2016, winning the WPIAL Class AAA championship and finishing second in the PIAA Class AAA tournament in Hershey.

“He was a nice kid, really sweet, and always had a smile,” his landlord Geo Honigford told the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H.

The Associated Press contributed.