EDMONTON – Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, died Tuesday evening after they were hit by an LRT train near 82nd Street and 114th Avenue.
The boy died at the scene, south of the Coliseum Station, and the girl was rushed to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in critical condition, where she died later in the evening.
Witnesses said the two teens were seen running across 82nd Street moments before they were hit.
A three-car northbound train struck the pair at about 8:15 p.m. A large group of firefighters, paramedics and police converged on the scene and tried to extricate the girl trapped under the middle car.
She was finally freed at about 9:15 p.m. and loaded onto a stretcher, then taken away in an ambulance.
After the accident, the scene was lit by spotlights, and a body could be seen under an orange tarp beside the tracks.
Police said six teens were seen walking down the tracks before the accident. Witnesses said they saw a boy chasing a girl across 82nd Street just before the two were hit.
“I had to slam on my brakes not to hit them,” said Anita McLeod. “All of a sudden she ran across the road; he was following her. I almost hit her.”
McLeod said the girl turned and made a frustrated gesture as she ran past. She said the two then ran up the tracks toward Coliseum.
One woman who lives in a third-floor apartment overlooking the scene said the boy appeared to hold the girl down on the tracks before the train hit them.
Homicide detectives were called out, but at 11 p.m. EPS spokesmen Chad Orydzuk said it was too early to tell if police were dealing with a crime scene. He would not comment on reports the boy may have been holding the girl down.
About 50 passengers were on the train, and one witness on-board said she did not feel the train brake before the accident. Police said the LRT driver tried to stop before the train ran over the teens.
After the accident, an announcement was made over the train’s PA system.
“There was nothing … then the train announcer said there was an accident, another train would be here for us, and that there was someone on the track,” Norma Okeyman said.
The passengers were later loaded onto a second train.
Three people have been killed on the tracks in the LRT’s history.
A 43-year-old man was struck in 1998 while standing next to the tracks near the underground Central Station tunnel.
The other two incidents both happened in 1993; both victims had been walking along the tracks at the time.
With files from Mariam Ibrahim and Conal Pierse
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