POUGHKEEPSIE – A man was killed by a southbound CSX “Trash Train” at approximately 2:30 a.m. in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday, according to the MTA. The 30-year-old man was suspected of trying to steal a car from the Poughkeepsie Train Station parking deck just minutes before he was killed by the freight train just north of the train station’s southbound platform.
According to the MTA, an officer with the MTA Police Department (MTAPD) was patrolling the parking garage at the station at approximately 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday when the officer observed the white male suspect who was believed to be trying to steal a vehicle.
An MTA spokesperson told Mid-Hudson News that the officer began inspecting the targeted vehicle when the suspect fled north through the parking deck and jumped over the low wall on the north side, landing on the piled snow that was created when the snow was removed from the parking deck during the winter and dumped over the side of the garage. The MTA cop reported that the man continued east toward the station yard. ” There was no further interaction with MTAPD officers, who had lost sight of the suspect immediately after he had jumped off the second level of the garage,” the MTA said.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., as officers were canvassing the area, the police were alerted by Metro-North that a pedestrian just north of the Poughkeepsie Station’s southbound platform had been struck by a southbound CSX freight train consisting of approximately 65 cars. The train, according to sources, is known as the “Trash Train” that travels to Grand Central Station in New York City and gets loaded with refuse from the station and hauls it to various landfills.
The MTA told Mid-Hudson News that the man had “come into contact with the train and was deceased on the tracks.” The MTA spokesperson added that “The suspect is known to law enforcement.”
Several MTA police officials were in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday following the accident.
Two sources who were in the area when the man was killed gave Mid-Hudson News statements that were similar, indicating they saw the man attempting to crawl under the moving train while trying to head east, away from the parking garage.
Identification is pending upon notification of the family.
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