An Amtrak train struck and killed an Amtrak employee just north of the Bowie State MARC station Tuesday morning.
The train bound for New York City was traveling at full speed when it struck the engineering employee just after 9 a.m. The victim was found about a half mile from the station, Prince George's County fire officials say.
There are three tracks along the section where the worker was struck, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The worker was a watchman, who is supposed to alert other workers with an orange warning sign and an air horn when a train approaches.
The watchman was on the middle track, and around the same time, a southbound MARC train traveled along that section of tracks. Investigators are looking into whether the watchman was focused on the MARC train.
The NTSB has video from the front and the rear of the Amtrak train and is interviewing other workers and witnesses.
"We are working closely with the FRA and NTSB to thoroughly investigate the details of this incident," Amtrak's statement said.
"The only thing we were told, semi-officially, was that there was police activity behind and in front of the train, but they never did tell us officially what had happened," a woman on the train said.
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Service on MARC's Penn Line was suspended for several hours before slowly resuming with reduced service. Metro honored MARC tickets.
