Stamford woman dangled legs off Cos Cob platform before train killed her

August 08, 2015 12:00 am • Last Updated: August 09, 2015 3:30 pm

Metro Transit Authority personnel investigate the scene where a person was struck and killed by a commuter train Friday, Aug. 7, 2015 near the Cos Cob train station in Greenwich, Conn. A Metro-North Railroad spokeswoman says a Connecticut woman trying to retrieve a wallet or handbag from the tracks was killed by a train pulling into the station. (Jason Rearick/ Hearst Connecticut Media via AP Photo)

Greenwich, Conn. — A Connecticut woman was killed by a commuter train after she went onto the tracks to retrieve her purse on the day before her 29th birthday, authorities said.

A spokesman for the Metro-North railroad said Tamar A. Louis of Stamford was sitting on the platform Friday at the Cos Cob station in Greenwich dangling her legs over the edge as a New Haven-bound express train was approaching.

"It was going 45 mph or something like that, and it's not clear what happened," Salvatore Arena said Saturday. "But the engineer hit his horn, that may have startled her. I believe that made her drop her purse on the tracks and she went to go get it."

Arena said the engineer tried to slow the train, which had not been scheduled to stop at Cos Cob, but it struck Louis. She was killed instantly.

Arena said MTA police are continuing to investigate.

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