RSS 2.0 FeedMarch 24, 2011, Cover Stories, Bellmore Life
19-year-old killed at Bellmore train station
Wantagh High School makes statement; young man planned to become a CPA
Benjamin J. Sassoon, a 19-year-old from Wantagh struck and killed by a westbound train at 4:45 p.m. at the Bellmore train station as an equipment train carrying no passengers passed through the station on its way to Manhattan, had plans to become a certified CPA when he graduated in 2013.
Instead, he was last seen on the platform by an unidentified witness moments before the train entered the station.
The train originated in Wantagh at 4:42 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at 5:42 p.m. at Penn Station.
Mr. Sassoon’s Facebook page revealed he was a 2009 graduate of Wantagh High School, where he played soccer, and was attending the University of Maryland at College Park.
Mr. Sassoon was carrying a double-major in accounting and finance at the university in hopes of becoming a certified CPA once graduating in 2013. He studied for two years at Hofstra University's Frank G. Zarb School of Business, before transferring to the Robert H. Smith School of Business at UM. At Hofstra he earned the Presidential Scholarship.
He was a member of the Finance Banking and Investment Society (FBIS) at the University of Maryland, placed first in the PricewaterhouseCoopers xACT Competition, was on the Dean's List, and maintained his interest in sports at the intramural level at the university.
As an accounting intern, he assisted the CFO and accountant daily at Intrans Group Inc., and was recognized for his excellent customer service as a sales associate at Pacific Sunwear.
The Wantagh High School District provided this statement: The Wantagh Board of Education and administration are extremely sad for the Sassoon family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time.
While MTA police are investigating the death as a possible suicide, no ruling has been made.
This latest death on the tracks comes after a woman died on the tracks in Wantagh earlier this month, and 16-year-old Mepham student James Clare died on the tracks west of the Bellmore train station during a Christmas season snowstorm in 2009.
