Train Hits, Kills Woman In Coraopolis

CORAOPOLIS (KDKA/AP) – A woman in a motorized wheelchair was killed by a freight train in Coraopolis later Friday morning.

Officials said the victim, whom authorities did not immediately identify, was struck at a railroad crossing near Mill Street around 11:15 a.m.

A CSX spokesman says the train consisted of two locomotives and 101 cars.

Neighbors say the woman, who is in her 70s, was just leaving the market on Fourth Avenue, heading for the Coraopolis Towers on a scooter or mechanized wheelchair when she was struck by the fast-moving train.

"She was getting ready to cross, and to me, it looked like she wasn't on a scooter, come to find out she was, and the gate went down and the train came and it just sucked her in, and she got caught on the front of it," said Cymone Bronaugh, a witness. "The train was pulling its whistle and it stopped all the way down by Fairy Street down here."

A team from the Allegheny County medical examiner's office was dispatched to the scene. They now identify her as 79-year-old Anna Shkraba of Coraopolis. An autopsy has been scheduled for Saturday.

The train was stopped on the tracks for hours.

Allegheny County Police and officials with the railroad are investigating.

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