Man killed in second train-on-pedestrian strike in two days

A man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Westborough yesterday, the second time someone was hit by a train west of Boston in two days.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene after he was struck by Amtrak train 449 en route from Boston to Albany, N.Y., police and Amtrak officials said.

"It was an apparent suicide," said Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the Worcester district attorney's office. "He was on the platform and just prior to 12:30, as the Amtrak westbound train approached the station, he jumped off the platform, ran across the eastbound tracks, scaled the chain-link fence, and then fell onto the tracks just as the westbound train arrived."

The man was struck on the tracks near the Smith Parkway station in Westborough, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.

There were no injuries to the 92 passengers on the train, who were taken by buses to Albany after nearly three hours of delays, Connell said. The authorized speed in that area is 60 miles per hour, Connell said. Westborough police are working with state, transit, Amtrak, and CSX police, to investigate the event.

"I wasn't aware of it until the train stopped," said train passenger Liz Herold of Saco, Maine. "It's a horrible thing, and I feel very bad for the driver."

On Monday night, a 54-year-old man was struck by a commuter rail train in Framingham, police and fire officials said. Gregory Buchanan was flown to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester with leg injuries, Framingham police said. There was no word on his condition.

-- Jeannie M. Nuss