The two teens fatally struck Sunday near the Lutherville light rail station were hit as they walked in the middle of the tracks with their backs to a train, the Maryland Transit Administration has determined.
MTA police made the judgment that the deaths were accidental after viewing video from the train that hit the pair about 2:55 p.m. Sunday, agency spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said Tuesday. She said family members were briefed by the MTA on that conclusion.
The MTA said earlier Tuesday that it believed Connor Peterson and Kyle Patrick Wankmiller, both 17, had been lying on the tracks while two trains passed over them. But Green said video evidence shows the two were walking north on tracks that are usually used for southbound travel when they were run over.
"It does feel better knowing that nobody hurt them," said Tracy Peterson, Connor's sister. "It doesn't bring them back, but it does bring closure."
At the time, the system was in two-way operations on one track because a train had been damaged earlier that afternoon; it had run into a highway guardrail that apparently had been placed on the northbound tracks. Greene said the boys probably thought the approaching train was using the other track.
"When you hear a train coming from the southern direction you expect it to be on" the northbound track, Greene said, noting that trains travel 40 mph to 45 mph in that area. "It can lull you into a false sense of security."
Still unexplained was how the operator of the train that struck the pair could have missed seeing them. Greene said the investigation is continuing.
Routine toxicology tests had been performed on operators of the 2:55 p.m. and 3:10 p.m. trains late Sunday, after officials determined they might have been involved in an accident, Greene said.
Both operators had been taken out of service, she said.
The teens, who lived in the same home in Lutherville, were discovered severely injured about 3:10 p.m. after the operator and fare inspector aboard another train noticed something on the tracks and the inspector walked back to determine what it was.
Greene said trains were operating in a single-track mode in that section because a northbound train that passed that way about 2:10 p.m. - an hour before the bodies were spotted - struck the guardrail piece.
Greene said that train's operator tried to remove the guardrail but was unsuccessful. At about 2:17, the train was pulled into the Lutherville station, and a maintenance crew and supervisor were summoned.
