Woman Killed By Light Rail, Passengers Break Windows To Get Off Train

DENVER (CBS4) - A woman has died after she was hit by a light rail train Saturday night.

The woman was struck at 11.45 p.m. between Arizona and Mississippi avenues. She was on the tracks when the train hit her and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials said it's not clear how or why the woman was on the tracks. It's difficult to access the tracks from the street because a chain-link fence topped off with barbed wire encloses them.

Passengers onboard at the time said they were kept inside the train for about two hours with little to no explanation from the Regional Transportation District. Their patience began to wear thin.

"People were just kind of chaotic in the train cars and not knowing what was going on," passenger David Dykhouse said. "We got little to no explanation of how long it was going to be."

Dykhouse said some passengers actually broke windows on the train trying to let themselves out of emergency exits.

RTD on Sunday said they couldn't let passengers off the train because it was too dangerous since there is a lot of train activity in the area. Police needed to investigate the impact and any damage to the train before it went back in service to help them put together a picture of what happened.

"It's disturbing to think that you're on a train and somebody just lost their life beneath it. It's really sad and you don't expect it and it takes you by surprise," Dykhouse said. "You sit there frustrated for two hours not knowing what's going on and then you hear that and you're like, 'Wow.' "

Police haven't released the victim's name.