Second of two pedestrians struck, killed by MARC train ID'd by MD Transit Administration
The MTA confirmed May 12 that Cian Cassidy, a 21-year-old man from New Market, Maryland, died in the incident, after previously confirming Summer Giffin, a 20-year-old woman from Knoxville, Maryland, was the other person who died. MTA spokesperson Veronica Battisti confirmed the identity of both of the deceased.
An obituary for Cassidy said his "absence leaves a space that can never be filled, but his memory will remain a guiding light for all who were fortunate to know and love him."
The Knoxville ZIP code where Giffin was from includes the Sandy Hook area and other communities in the southern tip of Washington County as well as parts of nearby Frederick County, according to ZipCodes.org.
Here's more from previous Herald-Mail reporting on the deadly train incident.
ORIGINAL STORY ON TRAIN INCIDENT: Two pedestrians walking on tracks dead after being struck by MARC train in Western Md.
FIRST PEDESTRAIN IN INCIDEN ID'D: Maryland Transit Administration IDs one of pedestrians struck and killed by MARC train
The incident occurred around 6:15 p.m. May 6, on CSX tracks in the Sandy Hook area.
Giffin and Cassidy were on the train tracks when a MARC train heading from Washington, D.C., to Martinsburg, W.Va., struck them, Battisti has said. About 100 passengers on MARC Train 875 were transferred to another train to complete their trip after the incident, Battisti added.
The affected route handles Amtrak and freight traffic as well as MARC commuter trains, CSX spokesperson Austin Staton said.
Traffic on those tracks resumed around 9:15 p.m. May 6, Staton said in an email.
Both CSX and transit officials stressed the dangers of walking on or alongside railroad tracks.
CSX has tracks along Sandy Hook Road in southern Washington County that cross the Potomac to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The tracks in that area are not far from the river with the route following the curves in the Potomac.
On June 11, 1999, two male pedestrians from North Potomac, Md., were killed by a MARC train in the Sandy Hook Road area. Eyewitnesses told The Herald-Mail at the time that the men had finished inner tubing in the nearby Potomac and were sitting on their inner tubes on the tracks.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: MTA identifies second pedestrian struck and killed by MARC train
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