16-year-old Pennsylvania boy fatally struck by freight train while walking to school

A 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy has been struck and killed by a freight train while walking to school.

Police say the boy was hit by a westbound Norfolk Southern train in Lebanon at around 6:45 a.m. Friday and pronounced dead at a hospital.

The Lebanon Daily News (http://bit.ly/1F9045f) reports a witness told police the warning gates were operating and the boy ran across the tracks.

Norfolk Southern says the train was traveling from Allentown to Harrisburg in a corridor with a maximum speed of 50 mph.

The railroad says the 4,000-ton train had three locomotives, 25 cars loaded with intermodal freight trailers and containers and 17 empty cars.

Police have interviewed the train's engineer and a crew member.

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Information from: Lebanon Daily News, http://www.ldnews.com