A 46-year-old Allentown man died Thursday night after being struck by a train in Salisbury Township, with the county coroner’s office saying he was pronounced dead at the scene. The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office has identified him as Horace J. Kieffer.
The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office identified the deceased as Horace J. Kieffer of Allentown, according to lehighvalleylive.com. Kieffer was pronounced dead at the scene, as reported by mcall.com.
Accounts of exactly where the collision happened differ. WFMZ.com reported, citing a coroner news release, that the train struck Kieffer near the 1200 block of Constitution Drive in Salisbury Township. The Morning Call, however, reported that the man was struck about 10:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Constitution Drive, a detail echoed by the same account that said officers responded just after 10:30 p.m. to the 1400 block of Constitution Drive for a reported man struck by a train.
Police, Coroner and Railroad Now Investigating
Salisbury Township police responded to the report of a pedestrian struck by a train, and Fountain Hill police and other emergency responders assisted at the scene, the same report notes. The Norfolk Southern Railway train conductor stopped at the scene and fully cooperated with the investigation, which remains open.
The incident is now under joint investigation by the Salisbury Township Police Department, the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office and Norfolk Southern, the report states. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday to determine Kieffer’s cause and manner of death, though results have not yet been released.
Second Fatal Train Strike in the Region
The Salisbury Township death comes more than two years after a separate, unrelated train-pedestrian collision in Emmaus claimed the life of 68-year-old Teresa G. Bell. The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office identified her as a resident of Emmaus, according to lehighvalleynews.com, which reported that Bell died from multiple blunt force injuries due to a pedestrian-train collision.
Preliminary reports indicated Bell had been attempting to cross railroad tracks on the 200 block of South Third Street in Emmaus when she was struck around 1:11 p.m.; she was pronounced dead at 1:54 p.m., per the same account. That case is being investigated separately by the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office, the Emmaus Police Department and the Norfolk Southern Police Department. The two incidents are not described as connected, but both remain under active investigation as officials work to determine what happened in each case.
