DETROIT LAKES, Minn. - A woman here was killed when she was struck by a Burlington Northern Sante Fe train this morning.
Authorities say a 35-year-old Detroit Lakes woman, whose name has not been released, had met a friend from Mahnomen, Minn., whose name also is being withheld, at the Amtrak station in Detroit Lakes Tuesday morning.
She was talking with the man at the station, who'd given her a television set and a stuffed animal, evidently as birthday presents, when she decided to cross the tracks to go to a tobacco store.
She was hit when she was returning to the depot about 10:40 a.m., according to the Becker County Sheriff's Department.
Detroit Lakes Police Chief Kel Keena said a westbound BNSF train hit the woman and an engineer in a second, eastbound BNSF train witnessed the accident.
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Keena said the train that hit the woman was blowing its whistle.
"She thought she could make it, I suppose," Keena said. "I don't know."
He said about 11:30 a.m. that police were waiting for BNSF officials to arrive and conduct their investigation and for a crew from Glyndon, Minn., to move the train.
- Mayfield is a reporter at the Detroit Lakes (Minn.) Tribune, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
