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Hey all. Everything's going good.. Kinda busy. I'll update more tomorrow but meanwhile, I just wanted to get this out in the open...
EAST STROUDSBURG - A forlorn figure sitting on the railroad tracks at sundown is what eyewitness Bob Weidner recalls.
"I almost stopped and said something to her," said Weidner, who saw the woman moments before she was hit by a Delaware-Lackawanna train near Wal-Mart.
"A man was walking away from her and her head was bowed. I heard the train coming. You could hear the train whistle blowing. The train rolled on by and then all of a sudden, it stopped and I thought 'Oh, my God,'" said Weidner, a resident of East Stroudsburg.
Police called it an apparent suicide attempt.
Her pink backpack was left along the tracks.
"The train wasn't going that fast. It didn't come to a screeching halt. It just kind of stopped," said Weidner, who was driving home from Wal-Mart when the accident happened.
A Suburban Ambulance crew spent about 15 minutes stabilizing the woman in the parking lot of Mr. Z's grocery store before she was flown by medical helicopter to the trauma center at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
A man who had been with the injured woman was crying and distraught as police interviewed him.
"I can't see her. I can't see her," he slurred, apparently under the influence of alcohol.
When asked if the woman had also been drinking, police would not comment.
The Scranton-bound train idled on the tracks as police investigated. Four diesel engines and two tank cars were disconnected from the rest of the train, which was still blocking the grade crossing on Forge Road as of 9 p.m.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad moves freight several times a week through Monroe County to and from the Norfolk-Southern rail yard in Slateford just south of Delaware Water Gap.
"This is the usual time of night for the Delaware-Lackawanna to be coming through here," said Greg Christine, a board member of the newly-formed Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority.
Christine said local crossings have been upgraded to be safer because of increased rail freight traffic.
"Unfortunately sometimes people walk down the middle of the railroad tracks," Christine said.
Christine, a former Monroe County commissioner, visited the scene of the accident shortly after it happened.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad will investigate, officials said.
EAST STROUDSBURG - A forlorn figure sitting on the railroad tracks at sundown is what eyewitness Bob Weidner recalls.
"I almost stopped and said something to her," said Weidner, who saw the woman moments before she was hit by a Delaware-Lackawanna train near Wal-Mart.
"A man was walking away from her and her head was bowed. I heard the train coming. You could hear the train whistle blowing. The train rolled on by and then all of a sudden, it stopped and I thought 'Oh, my God,'" said Weidner, a resident of East Stroudsburg.
Police called it an apparent suicide attempt.
Her pink backpack was left along the tracks.
"The train wasn't going that fast. It didn't come to a screeching halt. It just kind of stopped," said Weidner, who was driving home from Wal-Mart when the accident happened.
A Suburban Ambulance crew spent about 15 minutes stabilizing the woman in the parking lot of Mr. Z's grocery store before she was flown by medical helicopter to the trauma center at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
A man who had been with the injured woman was crying and distraught as police interviewed him.
"I can't see her. I can't see her," he slurred, apparently under the influence of alcohol.
When asked if the woman had also been drinking, police would not comment.
The Scranton-bound train idled on the tracks as police investigated. Four diesel engines and two tank cars were disconnected from the rest of the train, which was still blocking the grade crossing on Forge Road as of 9 p.m.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad moves freight several times a week through Monroe County to and from the Norfolk-Southern rail yard in Slateford just south of Delaware Water Gap.
"This is the usual time of night for the Delaware-Lackawanna to be coming through here," said Greg Christine, a board member of the newly-formed Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority.
Christine said local crossings have been upgraded to be safer because of increased rail freight traffic.
"Unfortunately sometimes people walk down the middle of the railroad tracks," Christine said.
Christine, a former Monroe County commissioner, visited the scene of the accident shortly after it happened.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad will investigate, officials said.