Police are still investigating the death of a 43-year-old Portland woman who was hit by a Brunswick-bound Amtrak train early Tuesday morning as she crossed over the tracks.Portland Police Department spokesperson Lt. Robert Martin says the woman was living alone in a tent in a wooded area near the tracks.
"We were familiar with her," Martin says. "We knew she was in the woods in that area and had prior contacts with her."
Martin says it's the second such fatality in the past year. He says in both cases it wasn't clear how the victims did not notice the noise of the oncoming train.
Martin says Tuesday's death is being investigated as an accident.
"The Amtrak goes through Portland several times a day," he says. "It goes at a pretty high rate of speed on some sections of the track. It doesn't take much to slip and fall or to be struck. So we just encourage people to stay off the right-of-way for the railroad."
Martin says it's also a crime to be on the tracks.
The woman's identity has not been released while police notify her family members.