BALTIMORE — One person was killed and another was seriously injured on December 8 when an Amtrak passenger train and an all-terrain vehicle collided on railroad tracks cutting through a residential neighborhood in Baltimore County’s Rosedale neighborhood, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Amtrak police did not identify the victims, but a Fire Department spokesman said one of the victims was a 19-year-old man. The injured person was in critical condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Media reports identified the victims as cousins.
Karen Dunn, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said Train No. 85, which originated in New York, was en route to Washington when it hit the ATV about 6:40 p.m. on the tracks south of the 600 block of Patapsco Ave. in Chesaco Park.
The train was too damaged to continue, so passengers were transferred to another train, Dunn said. The track was shut down for 35 minutes. Five other trains were delayed because of the accident.
Amtrak officials are investigating the crash, and will examine a device similar to an airplane’s “black box” to determine how fast the train was moving at the time of the collision.
Dunn said she did not know the speed allowed on that section of the track.
Trains on the so-called northeast corridor travel at speeds of up to 115 mph, she said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to review the results of Amtrak’s investigation. An NTSB spokesman could not comment on the accident last night.
“This was a tragedy, but it was an avoidable tragedy,” Dunn said. “There was no reason for the ATV to be on the tracks. We try to educate communities and kids about the dangers.”
Dunn said about 460 people are killed each year in collisions with trains. Neighbors in Chesaco Park, a close-knit section of Rosedale bisected by the train tracks, could see the lights of emergency vehicles illuminating the tracks last night.
Judy Abel, who lives on Patapsco Avenue near the tracks, said neighborhood kids often ride ATVs on and around the tracks.