Vigil held for girl a year after she was killed by train

14-year-old was struck along tracks in Middle River

Tara Stickel and her family gathered with friends in Middle River last night for a candlelight vigil to remember her 14-year-old daughter, Anna Marie, who died a year ago when she was struck by an Amtrak train as she walked along the tracks.

Trains rumbled by in the background as about 200 people, many of them Anna's school friends, gathered along Orems Road, not far from the site of the Jan. 5, 2010, accident. The teenager had been walking along the tracks, which were frequently used as a shortcut by local students, without authorization; she was unable to get out of the way of a train that came up behind her.

Anna's mother says little has been done over the past year to secure the tracks and prevent a recurrence. After the incident, she lobbied public officials and Amtrak for construction of a pedestrian bridge across the tracks.