Police did not respond to inquiries about the victim, who was not identified
An Amtrak spokeswoman said a train struck and killed a man on the tracks near Second and Fleetwood Streets in Coatesville yesterday afternoon.
She said the fatal accident occurred at 4:19 p.m. She said about 150 passengers on train 652 – Keystone service that runs from Harrisburg to New York – were transferred to train 654.
She said additional information would be released by Coatesville police, who did not respond to multiple phone and email inquiries.
Thanks very much for your comments, Rebecca. I attended the City Council meeting last night and complained again about the lack of information that has been released. I was told that an update would be available today. I will post it as soon as it becomes available.
I was returning from vacation on the west bound train to Lancaster. we had to slow down for a half mile. Amtrak was sorry for any inconvenice. I saw two people dressed in suites walking the Coatesville side of the tracks( they were probably detectives),next, I saw a young man lying face down like he had been shot. No one was attending him, obviously he was dead. My husband then saw a body that was convered with a blue tarp. I had seen an EMT with purple gloves walking the tracks. Next we saw policemen combing the banks to look for other body parts of the person that was hit. It was like a slow motion film that has been seered on my mind. Since that day, I have been trying to get the name of that young man that was hit, but also the mystery man that nobody is talking about. This is disturbing to me. My dad was steelworker and my mom was a banker. I want the truth. Amtrak seems to be covering this up. My opinion is it has to do with drugs and gangs and no body seems to be getting to the bottom of it.
They’re not busy any other time? Of course it’s not one time. First off they have been short handed a while now. Secondly Coatesville, especially in certain areas is drug infested and full of violence. Where I lived there was so gun violence it was like living in Dodge City. The police also have their hands full with domestic calls, accidents and stupid (minor) calls where grown adults can’t resolve their own issues. The point is you don’t know the actual reason(s) why they didn’t respond so why make them out to be the bad guys here? Making it an issue in public makes it sound like they weren’t doing their jobs. There’s much more to being a cop than you think. People in Cville need to sound off to city council about rehiring the laid off officers.
You said that police did not respond to inquiries about this man. There could be a lot of factors. How it was reported to 911. If it was reported right by the caller then it also depends on if the police were on other calls. Remember that some Coatesville officers were laid off due to budget problems. Not to mention being a bit busy trying to catch two murderers from two recent homicides. I saw them in action a while back during a tense standoff at a shooting. Believe me, they do not just let calls like this slide by. The way you worded their lack of response in this article leaves it wide open to interpretation. Their lack of response to your emails and calls means they are a tad busy.
The Coatesville PD tends not to make information available to the media and did not in this case, despite numerous attempts from our staff to get it. We certainly understand their staffing issues and probably wouldn’t have mentioned it if it were an isolated incident.