Crime & Safety
Authorities Identify Man Struck, Killed by Train
Police have identified a man who reportedly laid down on train tracks as a train approached on Wednesday night.
A man who was struck and killed by a freight train in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, Feb. 11, has been identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The man has been identified as Matthieu Pellissier, 39, of the North Side, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pellissier died as a result of blunt force trauma and his death has been ruled a suicide, the Post-Gazette reported.
Police responded to the 300 block of Cedar Avenue at 8:58 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a report of a male struck by a train, Pittsburgh Police said in a press release.
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Police said a middle-aged, white male walked onto the tracks and proceeded to lay across them as the Norfolk-Southern-owned freight train, towing 11 empty freight cars, traveled northbound. The train engineer sounded the horn repeatedly to alert the man and applied the brakes, but was not able to stop in time, police said in the release.
Medics pronounced the man dead on arrival.
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