Updated 9:50 a.m. Jan. 25: An eastbound Amtrak passenger train struck and killed a pedestrian in downtown Gaithersburg on Tuesday afternoon, a Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service official said.
The train struck Dwight Nathaniel Demar, 67, of Chestnut Street in Gaithersburg, before 2 p.m. in the area near South Summit and Wells avenues and the Gaithersburg Train Station, according to MCFRS spokesman Pete Piringer and county police. According to CSX and MARC train workers at the scene, he was hit as he was crossing the tracks in a crosswalk by the station. Demar was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Police identified him Wednesday night.
The train, which Piringer said was headed to Washington, D.C., from Chicago, was carrying a passenger with a medical emergency. A team of medics was waiting in Rockville to transport the patient to a nearby hospital.
After the fatality, first responders cut a hole in a fence along the tracks in order to gain access to the train and extract the passenger with the medical emergency, Piringer said. They transported the person to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Rail service was suspended on the tracks following the incident, but resumed by about 4:30 p.m.
Montgomery County police are conducting a death investigation. The identity of the pedestrian was not immediately available.
The pedestrian was crossing the crosswalk in the foreground when he was struck. Credit: Joe Zimmermann
Traffic Advisory – CSX RR Tracks CLOSED btwn Germantown & Rockville (Frederick & DC) due to incident in Gaithersburg, police are investigating NOTE: local vehicular traffic ok N&S Summit Av, E Diamond Av, Olde Towne Av OPEN pic.twitter.com/N2z7uJIrlY
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) January 23, 2018
Full information on Brunswick Line service disruption: https://t.co/9g9MLPYss3
— MTA Maryland (@mtamaryland) January 23, 2018