A 14-year-old girl wearing a headset was struck from behind and killed by a train east of Baltimore while walking to school Tuesday morning, according to Baltimore County police.
Cpl. Mike Hill said Ann Marie Stickel, of Middle River, was walking to school southbound on the tracks near Old Orems Road and Middle River Road when she was struck from behind around 9 a.m. Tuesday. He said she was not trying to cross the tracks, as some initial reports indicated.
Though he couldn’t confirm if she was listening to music, Hill said she “had some headset that was in her ears at the time of the accident that was connected to a device.”
Hill said she was walking with a friend who jumped clear of the train and called police.
Ann Marie was a student at Essex’s Kenwood High School.
Trains running on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Washington and Delaware were halted for two hours Tuesday morning before one track reopened for trains to move at reduced speeds, said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero. The tracks reopened just after noon, she added.
A handful of midday departures were canceled to prepare for rush hour, which was not affected by the accident, she said.
Ann was hit by a Northeast Regional train heading from New York to Washington. Passengers, none of whom were hurt, remained on the train following the accident.
The incident is the latest in a string of fatal accidents involving Amtrak trains. According to the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis, there were 98 such fatalities between January and October last year.
