According to Ohio regional news outlet Toledo News Now, 57-year-old Theresa Rook walked onto tracks and lay down in Monroe, Michigan at about 10pm on Sunday, ahead of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train traveling southbound.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the train, which had 130 loaded rail cars and two engines, had just left a local coal plant en route to Toledo and could not stop in time.
Officials pronounced Rook dead at the scene and told the paper it was still reviewing the incident but it appeared to be intentional.
It noted that all signals and gates were in functioning order at the time.
Just hours before, on Saturday afternoon in Illinois, eight cars from a coal train traveling from Cicero, Illinois, to Toledo left the tracks, according to WLS.
The railroad was not indicated in the WLS report.
No injuries or evacuations were reported in the incident and an investigation has commenced into the cause.