MTA double fatality called an accident
The Maryland Transit Administration has determined that the two teenagers who were fatally struck by a train Sunday near the Lutherville light rail station were struck from behind as they walked in the middle of the tracks with their backs to a train, an MTA spokeswoman said Tuesday.
MTA police arrived at the judgment that the deaths were accidental after viewing video from the train that struck the pair about 2:55 p.m. Sunday, spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said.
The MTA said earlier Tuesday that they believed that Connor Peterson and Kyle Patrick Wankmiller, both 17, had been lying on the tracks while two trains passed over them. But Green said the video evidence shows the two were walking north on tracks that are usually used for southbound travel when they were run over.
At the time, the light rail system was in two-way operations on one track because another train had been damaged after it ran into a highway guardrail that apparently had been left on the northbound tracks.
Greene said the boys apparently thought the approaching train was using the other track.
"When you hear a train coming from the southern direction you expect it to be on (the northbound track)," Greene said. "It cal lull you into a false sense of security."
Greene noted that members of the public are not allowed to walk on the tracks except at designated crossing points. To walk along the tracks is considered trespassing, she said.
Still unexplained was how the operator of the train that struck the pair could have missed seeing them. Greene said the investigation is continuing.
The two teens were discovered severely injured about 3:10 p.m. after the operator and fare inspector aboard another train noticed something on the tracks and the inspector walked back to determine what it was. Wankmiller died Sunday at St. Joseph Medical Center. Peterson died Monday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
