Woman killed by train near Philips Highway in Avenues area

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman was hit and killed by a train early Saturday morning on Mussells Acres Road near Philips Highway. The area is near the Walmart off Avenues Walk Boulevard.

Sgt. Edwin Cayenne with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a train with Florida East Coast Railway was heading south around 5:30 a.m. when the woman was hit and killed.

She has not been identified yet.

Detectives searched near the tracks for more than three hours looking for more evidence.

The news shocked Ilisa and Steve Safer, who were on their way to do some shopping nearby shortly after the incident.

They had to find a different way around that part of Mussells Acres Road.

“It’s a sad way to start 2022,” Steve said.

“Nothing like this ever happened [around here before],” Ilisa said. “We were very sad that it happened and what could they do to keep it from happening again?”

Cayenne said detectives are working to find out when and why the woman ended up on the tracks.

Despite the circumstances, Ilisa said “sad” is the only way to describe this situation.

“You don’t want to ever assume it’s going to happen to somebody one day, but you just never know,” she said. “You don’t know what’s going through their minds either as they are walking up the tracks.”

There were no technical issues with the train and no one else was hurt during this incident.

According to Cayenne, the next step in the investigation is detectives looking for surveillance video that may show when the woman got on the tracks and what she was doing right before she was hit.


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