Train Kills Girl Crossing Tracks

An Amtrak train struck and killed a 15-year-old girl Friday as she attempted to cross tracks while on her way to school, authorities said.

April Jefferson was walking with two younger male cousins along tracks that run beside Lake Pontchartrain. The three had crossed the tracks earlier so they could walk along the edge of the lake in eastern New Orleans, said Juan Barnes, a police spokesman.

When they saw the train approaching, they tried to rush back to the other side of the tracks so they could proceed to school without having to wait for the train to pass, Barnes said.

The victim’s two cousins told police they made it across safely and turned around to see the girl being hit as she tried to follow, Barnes said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured.

The train had just left downtown New Orleans en route to New York. Barnes said a conductor told him the train was moving about 79 mph, the normal speed for that section of track.