One man was killed and another individual injured when they were struck on a New England Central Railroad bridge near White River Junction by Amtrak’s Vermonter train late Friday morning, Nov. 27.
Town of Hartford police identified the dead man as Nicolas Siciliano, 18, of Windsor. The identity of the other person, a male believed to be about the same age, was being withheld pending notification of family.
The train, on its way from St. Albans, to Washington, D.C., was crossing the bridge over the White River, about five miles north of White River Junction, at 11:16 a.m. when it struck the two individuals.
The unidentified person was rescued at 11:45 a.m. from the middle of the bridge and taken by helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, according to the Valley News.
The police stated that he “suffered significant injuries.” He remained in critical condition as of 5 p.m. Friday, a hospital spokesman told VTDigger. Rescuers found Siciliano submerged in the river downstream from the bridge, according to a Vermont Standard report. Emergency personnel administered CPR immediately, and he was then taken by ambulance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The train came to a halt at the south end of the structure. According to sources, the two individuals had walked halfway across the 700-foot-long bridge, whose deck stands about 60 feet above the river, when the accident took place. The passenger-train speed limit in the area is believed to be 59 mph.
No one was injured on the train, which resumed its southbound journey at 2:05 p.m., according to Amtrak.
The railroad tracks in question are owned by the New England Central’s parent company, Genesee and Wyoming, and unauthorized persons on the tracks are considered trespassers.
Nationwide, 501 trespassers were killed on railroads in 2014, according to Operation Lifesaver, a national railroad-safety organization. In 2013 and 2014, the group’s statistics state, more than half of all the casualties among railroad trespassers were fatalities. Trespassers use railroad rights-of-way for activities as diverse as jogging and snowmobiling.
