Train officials: Company unaware about renewed search
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Norfolk Southern officials said they didn’t know crews had resumed their search for a missing woman along railroad tracks in Western Pennsylvania where a firefighter was later struck and killed by a train.
Volunteer Firefighter Edwin Wentzel was struck by a Norfolk Southern train around 5:45 p.m. Saturday in North Versailles), about 13 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Chief Lloyd Crago of the Youngwood fire department told a Pittsburgh newspaper the rail operator had been told his department would be working beneath the Westinghouse Bridge.
Norfolk Southern spokesman David Pidgeon said the search team asked that trains be stopped early Thursday but withdrew that request several hours later. He said neither train police nor the dispatch center were told Saturday before the search resumed