A 17-year-old Aberdeen girl died Wednesday morning after she was struck by an Amtrak train on her way to school.
Akilah Boddy was walking to Aberdeen High School with two boys shortly after 8 a.m. when she was struck, said Detective Sgt. Steve Smith of the Aberdeen Police Department.
The two boys heard the train coming and crossed the tracks, Smith said. The boys told Smith that when they looked back to see where Akilah was, she was no longer behind them. Smith said the boys told him they heard the train, but did not see it coming.
Katrina Romero, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said the accident took place about a mile and a half north of the Aberdeen train station.
“We don?t know the exact track speed just yet, but it was probably very close to 125 miles per hour,” Romero said.
She said the train, Amtrak?s Acela Express train 2154, did not stop at the Aberdeen train station. The train had originated in Washington and was bound for Boston.
The train was delayed more than two hours because of the accident, and about eight other Amtrak passenger trains were delayed about an hour, Romero said.
No information was available Wednesday about how the accident might have happened. Romero said Amtrak police were handling the investigation but would only be looking into questions such as when the train operator applied the brakes and whether anyone on board the train was injured.
She said information about the victim?s identity and any factors that might have caused her not to be aware of the train would have to come from the Medical Examiner?s Office.
The Medical Examiner?s Office referred calls to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. John Healy, a spokesman for the department, referred questions to the Aberdeen police.
But Smith said it was not his agency?s investigation, except insofar as Amtrak had authorized his department to release the victim?s name Wednesday evening.
