By Rachel Kalina
The woman, who a source said was a Baldwin resident and whom MTA police did not identify, was standing alone at the Baldwin station platform on Aug. 17 at about 10 a.m. James Castel, a spokesperson for the LIRR, said it was the 8:58 a.m. eastbound train from Pennsylvania Station heading to Freeport that "struck and fatally injured" her. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, Castel said.
Officials said the train engineer blew the horn and applied the emergency brakes before the woman was struck, but was unable to avoid hitting her.
It is unclear if the woman ended up on the tracks in an apparent suicide, and Castel said he could not verify whether the woman actually jumped in front of the oncoming train or what could have compelled her to do so.
"It's still under investigation," Castel said.
According to Dale Camhi at the Long Island Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, elderly people can have numerous factors in their lives which may contribute to suicidal thoughts.
"The statistics by age show that 75 to 84-year-olds and those above 85 have about a 16 percent suicide rate," Camhi said, adding that this was a large number. She said that elderly white males have the highest rates of suicide.
Although it has yet to be determined if the 83-year-old woman threw herself onto the tracks, Camhi said any number of reasons could have led to her possible suicide. Among them are chronic illness, depression and links between these two factors.
"There is an association between suffering from these illnesses and depression," she said. "As people get older, does depression bring on medical complications, or does suffering from a chronic illness increase the chance of depression?" she said, adding that it was a "which came first" type question.
Camhi said that elderly people also tend to have more losses of friends and loved ones, a smaller social world, feelings of isolation, immobility and other complications that can lead to a depressed mental state.
As a result of the incident, trains were delayed by 15-minute increments for a period of two hours, and Castel said the LIRR was only able to operate on one of the Babylon tracks. No passengers were injured.
He added that the incident is still under investigation.
Comments about this story? Rkalina@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
