Two killed on LIRR tracks in Copiague

An eastbound Long Island Rail Road train struck and killed two young women Tuesday night just west of the Copiague station, officials said.

The women were not authorized to be on the elevated tracks, which are on an embankment, said LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto. They were hit by the 5:19 p.m. train out of Penn Station, he said, but there were no passengers on it at the time.

Dan Campion, second assistant chief for the Copiague Fire department, described the victims as "two young girls in their late teens, early twenties." Campion said there was a cellphone in the area of the victims.

The 12-car train had finished its run at Wantagh and was heading toward Babylon when the accident happened, Zambuto said.

"It finished its passenger run and was operating without passengers, as it normally does, to Babylon," he said.

But about 6:30 p.m., it hit the two women on the tracks near the Copiague station, he said.

It's not clear what barriers, if any, were in place to prevent people from going up the embankment. The place where the train struck the women was on an elevated track a couple hundred feet west of the station platform and not near any pedestrian crossings.

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Metropolitan Transportation Authority police are investigating and trying to find out the identities of the women.

About 9:40 p.m., the Suffolk County medical examiner transported the bodies, which were still on the tracks. Investigators were clearing the scene just before 10 p.m.

Copiague Fire Department Chief Julian Wellington said about 12 firefighters arrived at the train station shortly after the accident.

"There was no help [for the victims] by that point," Wellington said.

The Copiague Fire Department stayed to provide lights for the MTA investigators.

Babylon branch trains in both directions were temporarily suspended but service was fully restored by about 10 p.m., according to LIRR's service updates.

Buses have been ordered to take eastbound passengers from Wantagh, the train service said.

While investigators were at the scene, several Copiague residents watched as evidence was collected and the area was searched. Bob Smith, 47, and John Heimbuch, 50, were there and said they grew up together in Copiague and live near the accident site.

"It's sad, it's really sad," Smith said.

Jose Hernandez, 29, also lives down the street and was going to get dinner when he saw the commotion. "Why would anyone be up there?" he said of the embankment.

Salvatore Ferrara was working at his family business, the Electrical Training Center of Long Island, near the tracks: "It was like a thud. I heard the brakes go off, like a screech. We heard it from inside so I guess you can say it was pretty loud."