Verplanck man killed by train in Cortlandt
CORTLANDT - A 27-year-old Verplanck man was killed Wednesday night when he ran from the platform onto the tracks at the Cortlandt train station and was struck by an Amtrak train, authorities said.
Brian McCallum was a graduate of the University of Albany, where he earned an English degree. He also acted in community theater in northern Westchester. Officials with the Westchester Medical Examiner's Office performed an autopsy Thursday, ruling his death a suicide.
The No. 243 train left Penn Station at 8:50 p.m. with 112 passengers and was bound for Albany when it struck McCallum just north of the station at 9:48 p.m., said Assistant Chief Stephen Conner of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police.
"The engineer reports that the deceased ran off the north end of the platform at Cortlandt station onto the track area as the train was passing through the station at approximately 60 mph," said Sal Arena, an MTA Metro-North Railroad spokesman.
MTA patrol officers and detectives processed the scene, he said, and later notified the man's parents. McCallum's mother declined to comment Thursday at her home in Verplanck.
Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman based in Chicago, said no one on board the train was injured. Passengers were transferred to another Amtrak train, No. 245, about midnight to continue the trip to Albany.
Trains were delayed on the Hudson Line overnight, but service was back to normal for the Thursday morning commute.
Staff writer Terence Corcoran contributed to this report.