DURHAM, N.H. — A 17-year-old girl struck by the Amtrak Downeaster train at a popular swimming spot escaped with relatively minor injuries, a wire service reported.
Samantha Leclair, of Seabrook, was jumping off a trestle over the Lamprey River on Monday afternoon when the southbound train came through. The engineer told police he thought the train clipped the girl, who was hospitalized in Dover with back and neck injuries and was in fair condition Tuesday morning.
“She’s extremely fortunate to walk away with the minor injuries that she has,” Deputy Police Chief Rene Kelley said Tuesday. “It could have been a fatality very easily.”
Authorities said trains slow to 40 mph as they approach the trestle because of the area’s popularity as a swimming spot. Six young people at the swimming hole were charged Monday with trespassing, and Leclair also will be charged, Kelley said.
Kelley said the spot has been trouble for years despite patrols by his department and railroad police.
“People need to use some common sense. You don’t go on a train bridge and put yourself in harm’s way,” he said.
John Law, safety director for track owner Guilford Rail, commended the engineer.
“As soon as he came around the bend and saw them on the bridge, he sounded the whistle,” Law said.
Law, who arrived at the scene shortly after the accident, said the engineer also dropped sand on the tracks, an emergency procedure to give him more traction to stop.
“If he had been going 60, we would have a fatality down there,” Law said.
Police Chief David Kurz said the engineer reported that most of the group jumped from the trestle when they heard the whistle, but Leclair did not. The engineer thought she was trying to outrun the train.
Law said the train’s crew found the girl lying on the side of the railbed.
Kurz said Amtrak engineers are ordered to slow down near the trestle on hot summer days in case swimmers are using the bridge. Amtrak said Guilford Rail also requires trains to travel at 40 mph instead of 60 mph when temperatures are higher than 90 degrees.
The temperature was well into the 90s on Monday.
Kurz said the new Portland-to-Boston passenger trains are very quiet compared to the rumbling freight trains that have used the route for years.
“You can’t hear them until they’re by you” because of the new, seamless rails installed for the high-speed service, Kurz said.
The accident delayed the train by 2 hours and 12 minutes.