GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut woman was killed by a commuter train after she went onto the tracks to retrieve her purse on the day before her 29th birthday, authorities said Saturday.
A spokesman for the Metro-North railroad said Tamar A. Louis of Stamford was sitting on the platform Friday at the Cos Cob station in Greenwich dangling her legs over the edge as a New Haven-bound express train was approaching.
"It was going 45 mph or something like that, and it's not clear what happened," Salvatore Arena said. "But the engineer hit his horn, that may have startled her. I believe that made her drop her purse on the tracks and she went to go get it."
Arena said the engineer tried to slow the train, which had not been scheduled to stop at Cos Cob, but it struck Louis. She was killed instantly.
Arena said MTA police are continuing to investigate.