The woman killed Friday by a train has been identified.

According to the Caledonia police, Jocelyn M. Flashinski of Wauwatosa was killed after getting struck by a southbound Amtrak train Friday evening near 4 Mile Road and Highway H in Caledonia. Flashinski does have ties to the Racine area. She was 31.

Patch reached out to the Flashinski family, but relatives were too distraught to comment.

Police said Flashinski ran onto the tracks and that "the incident is not criminal in nature." The train was traveling from Milwaukee to Chicago.

Vince Patoka, a passenger on a northbound train from Chicago to Milwaukee that had to stop after the accident, told Patch that the conductor had been making announcements about every 20 minutes to apologize for the inconvenience.

Passengers were told there was an incident on the track ahead of their train that had no impact on passenger safety, Patoka said.

That train was able to pull into the Sturtevant station at approximately 8 p.m., and by 9 p.m. was going to be allowed to continue its journey north into Milwaukee.


 
Image courtesy of Operation Lifesaver, 2012
 
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In 2009, 7 major railroads existed in the United States compared to 14 in 1990 (United States Census Bureau, 2012)

There was an estimated 160,000 miles of railroad in the United States for 2010 (Association of American Railroads, 2010)

Every 120 minutes in the United States, there are train collisions with motor vehicles or pedestrians (Chattar-Cora, Tutela, Daum, & Cromack, 2007)

In 2005, railroad trespassers accounted for 53% of rail fatalities (Savage, 2007)

The transcontinental railroad was built in the 1860s as a means to link the eastern US with the west (The first transcontinental railroad, nd)

Sources:

American Association of Railroads. (2010). Class I railroad statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.aar.org/~/media/aar/Industry%20Info/AAR%20Stats%202010%200524.ashx

Chattar-Cora, D., Tutela, R., Daum, A., & Cromack, D. (2007). Experience with railroad injuries at a major urban trauma center serving the United States-Mexico border. Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care 62, (5), 1123-1126.
Savage, I. (2007). Trespassing on the railroad. Research in Transportation Economics, 20, 199-224.

The first transcontinental railroad. (nd). Retrieved from: http://www.tcrr.com/

United States Census Bureau. (2012). Table 1122: railroads class I summary: 1990-2009. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1122.pdf