A person was killed Wednesday morning after being hit by a CSX train in northeast Atlanta, officials said.
The victim was struck around 6:15 a.m. on the tracks west of Cheshire Bridge Road near Faulkner Road, according to CSX spokesperson Sheriee Bowman.
Atlanta police and fire officials responded to the scene, where the victim was pronounced dead, Bowman said. They were unidentified as of late Wednesday morning, according to an investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“CSX extends its deepest sympathies to everyone impacted by this tragedy,” the company wrote in a statement.
Patti Gouvas has lived in the Cheshire Bridge area on and off for several decades and is used to hearing the train whistle from inside her childhood home. On Wednesday, Gouvas said she heard the train make an unfamiliar noise and walked outside to find it in an “unusual holding pattern.”
“The train was turned off and completely silent, so I sat there for a while and I thought, ‘Something’s definitely wrong,’” Gouvas told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Gouvas said she called CSX and was met by a solemn operator who informed her that someone had been hit on the tracks. She said it was the latest incident in her neighborhood. In December, a fire broke out underneath an overpass on Cheshire Bridge Road, prompting officials to shut down the major thoroughfare for the second time in two years.
“It’s just horrible that someone got killed today,” Gouvas said. “This is yet another catastrophic event.”
Atlanta police declined to provide more information about Wednesday’s incident and said CSX police were “resuming” the lead in the investigation.
CSX advises people to never walk on tracks and always expect a train, which is unable to stop quickly. A freight train traveling 55 mph takes more than a mile, or the length of about 18 football fields, to stop, the company said.
“Remember to cross train tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings, and obey warning signs and signals posted there,” CSX added. “Refrain from texting, using headphones or other distractions that would prevent you from hearing an approaching train; never mix rails and recreation.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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