Pedestrian Struck/Killed By Train in Elkhart on 8/16/23.

[Jochs]

A pedestrian was hit and killed by a Norfolk Southern Train in downtown Elkhart this past Wednesday while walking down the tracks near Main and Middlebury Streets.
https://wsbt.com/news/local/identify-pe ... rt-indiana#

https://www.wndu.com/2023/08/18/coroner ... n-elkhart/

[~Z~]

The hit didn't happen to be on virtual railfan's Elkhart camera feed, right?

[justalurker66]

It was seen live on the East camera at the station. The camera feed was taken down as soon as possible after the incident. There may be a screen capture floating around but if VR finds it they are enforcing their copyright to get it taken down.

I saw it on the VR feed. The pedestrian seemed oblivious to the train ... just walked past the gate crossing the intersection from Middlebury St toward the museum. He did not change pace or stop on the track. He was almost clear of the train. The cornier is awaiting toxicology reports.

The train was moving slow on main two, the center of the three tracks (the pedestrian also crossed the Marion Branch track). The train was routed into the Elkhart Yard.

Police and EMS responded quickly ... some people kept watching the east feed. I did not. When the responders covered the body the PTZ camera turned to it's night parking position looking west and stayed there until trains were running again. (About a 2hr 20m delay. A fresh crew arrived long before the end of the delay.)

After the incident an container train (20X?) came east and stopped at the nose of the incident train (174?). 174 moved into the yard and eventually 20X moved east until it was stopped in Ligonier. Amtrak 48 was the second eastbound after the incident.

IIRC the crossing was disabled after the incident. Trains were stopping and protecting their moves. As noted, the gates were down at the time of the incident so it was not a crossing failure.