On a Wednesday morning in early October, along a rail line near Chilson and Brighton roads in Livingston County, Michigan, a 79-year-old Genoa Township woman was struck and killed by a passing train. She was walking toward a nearby party store, and investigators believe she may have fallen and been unable to rise before the train arrived. The circumstances that brought her onto the tracks remain unexplained, and the investigation continues, as such losses so often do, with more questions than answers.
Livingston County Woman, 79, Dies After Train Strikes Her on Railroad Tracks
A 79-year-old Genoa Township woman died after being struck by a train while walking on the tracks.
She had no identification, but a missing-person report had just come in.
Mark
What do we actually know happened that morning?
Mimi
A train crew saw someone lying on the tracks near Chilson and Brighton roads around 10:30 a.m. The conductor tried to stop, but the train hit her. She was 79 and from Genoa Township.
Mark
How did police figure out who she was?
Mimi
She had no ID. But dispatch had just received a missing-person report nearby, so troopers went to a home in the area and found it was her.
Mark
And the idea that she was walking to a party store?
Mimi
That came from the investigation and her family. Police believe she was walking the tracks from home to a nearby store.
Luke
I'd keep that in the 'believe' column. Police say she may have fallen and couldn't get up. Nobody saw it, as far as the reporting says, so the fall is an inference.
Mark
Is there anything about why she was on the tracks?
Mimi
No. Police say it isn't known.
Luke
Right, and that's the biggest gap. We don't know if it was a habitual route, whether she was disoriented, or whether she was hurt before the train came. None of that is in the reporting.
Mark
What about the aftermath?
Mimi
Troopers closed the intersection for several hours and reopened it around 7 p.m. The investigation is still open.
Luke
Worth noting her name hasn't been released either, so there's a limit to what can be said about her.
Der Puls
- A train crew spotted a figure lying on the rails ahead and could not stop in time.
- Troopers arrived at the scene with no name and no identification to go on.
- A missing-person call from the same area revealed the victim's identity within the hour.
- Police suspect a fall, but why she walked the tracks remains an open question for the investigation.
- The intersection stayed closed for roughly eight and a half hours while the scene was examined.
On a Wednesday morning in early October, along a rail line near Chilson and Brighton roads in Livingston County, Michigan, a 79-year-old Genoa Township woman was struck and killed by a passing train. She was walking toward a nearby party store, and investigators believe she may have fallen and been unable to rise before the train arrived. The circumstances that brought her onto the tracks remain unexplained, and the investigation continues, as such losses so often do, with more questions than answers.
Around 10:30 on the morning of Wednesday, October 7, a train was moving through a stretch of track near Chilson and Brighton roads in Livingston County when the crew saw someone lying on the rails ahead. The conductor tried to stop, but the train could not halt in time, and the woman was struck.
When Michigan State Police arrived, they found no identification on her. While they worked to learn who she was, dispatchers had just taken a missing-person report from the same area. A visit to a nearby home confirmed the match: she was a 79-year-old Genoa Township resident. Police have not released her name.
With her family's help, investigators traced her last movements. They believe she had been walking the railroad tracks from home toward a party store, and that she may have fallen and could not get back up. Police are careful to call this a working belief, not a confirmed finding.
Why she chose the tracks is still unknown. Police have not explained it, and the reporting does not say whether she had walked that route before.
The crash closed the intersection for hours, reopening around 7 p.m. The investigation continues, focused on how she came to be on the tracks and whether the suspected fall can be confirmed.
Around 10:30 on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 7, a train was moving along the tracks near Chilson and Brighton roads in Livingston County, Michigan, when the crew saw a person lying on the rails ahead. The conductor tried to stop the train. It could not stop in time, and it struck the woman.
The conductor gave this account to Michigan State Police. When troopers arrived, they could not say who she was, because she had no identification on her.
While they worked to establish her identity, troopers learned that Livingston County Central Dispatch had just taken a missing-person report in the same area. They went to a nearby home and learned that the missing person and the woman struck by the train were the same. She was a 79-year-old resident of Genoa Township. Police have not released her name.
Investigators then pieced together a picture of her last movements with help from her family. Police believe she had been walking along the railroad tracks from her home toward a nearby party store. Their working theory is that she may have fallen and was unable to get back up before the train came. That is a belief, not an established finding, and the language police used reflects it.
What remains unknown is why she was on the tracks at all. Police have not offered an explanation for why she chose that route, and the reporting does not say whether it was a path she had used before.
The crash had effects beyond the family. Troopers closed the intersection at Chilson and Brighton roads for several hours while they examined the scene. The road reopened at about 7 p.m., roughly eight and a half hours after the train struck her.
The Michigan State Police investigation is continuing. The open questions are the ones police have named: how she came to be on the tracks, and whether the fall they suspect can be confirmed.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Police believe she was walking the tracks from home to a nearby party store and may have fallen and been unable to get up before the train arrived.— Michigan State Police, per WDIV ClickOnDetroit
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