Community Corner

Woman Struck and Killed by Amtrak Train in New Brunswick

Trains going to and from New York and Trenton are still stuck hours after a woman was fatally struck by an Amtrak train in New Brunswick.

Three of four tracks on the Northeast Corridor line which runs from New York to Trenton are still closed after a woman was fatally struck by an Amtrak train in the vicinity of the New Brunswick train station earlier today. New Brunswick police would only say that the woman, whose identity has not been confirmed, had been hit by a speeding Amtrak train at approximately 4:45 pm.

The accident has caused massive train delays in both directions, said NJ Transit spokeswoman Courtney Carroll. Trains at the Woodbridge train station, which is the first stop in the shore spur that leads from the main train lines to New York and Trenton, were halted at the train station at 6 pm.

Police said that train traffic on the line stopped after the accident, "when about 17 investigators were crawling the tracks," a New Brunswick sergeant said.

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The Middlesex County medical examiner was also called to the scene, the sergeant said. The county examiner did not return phone calls.

There were no reported injuries among the 121 travelers on the Amtrak train involved in the accident, said Amtrak spokeswoman Christina Leeds.

Find out what's happening in Woodbridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Details on the accident were scanty and unclear with three agencies saying that the others were taking charge of investigating the accident. New Brunswick police, who were present on the scene, said NJ Transit was handling the accident investigation. Carroll said that the train tracks are owned by Amtrak and that Amtrak was heading the investigation. But Leeds, speaking for Amtrak, pointed to the New Brunswick police as the authorities conducting the investigation.

Both a flower shop and a Dunkin Donuts franchise are located at the New Brunswick train station, which is situated at the intersection of Albany and Hamilton Streets. A Dunkin Donuts employee, who was at work at the time of the accident, said that police were milling around the station for hours and said they didn't know if the woman's death was an accident or a suicide.

The Home News Tribune, however, reported that New Brunswick Police Lt. J. T. Miller said witnesses who saw the woman said she got off the train station platform and purposely laid down on the tracks.

(Writer Megha Vyas contributed to this report.)


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