14-year-old girl riding ATV is hit, killed by train

A 14-year-old girl was struck and killed by a train yesterday afternoon while riding an all-terrain vehicle in Winslow Township.

The girl's name wasn't immediately released by authorities.

The Atlantic City Rail Line train, en route from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, hit the girl at about 2:45 p.m., about three-quarters of mile west of the Route 30 bridge in Winslow, according to NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett.

Hackett said the train engineer saw the girl on the ATV and applied the emergency braking system, but couldn't stop in time.

"Obviously this is a tragedy. Our thoughts are with the family," Hackett said.

Hackett called the accident "an incident that didn't have to happen. We urge people not to trespass on railroad property."

She said the accident is under investigation by NJ Transit police.

About 200 passengers were transferred to another train.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that 136,700 people were hurt and 47 were killed in ATV accidents in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available. About 30 percent of that number are children under age 16, the government says.