PALMER — Wasilla police on Monday identified the woman killed by a train Friday night as a 48-year-old local resident but said they had no additional information as to why she was on the tracks at the time.
Diana Wilson died despite efforts by numerous officers to revive her after Wilson was struck near the intersection of Hermon and Old Matanuska roads, the Wasilla Police Department said. The area is within Wasilla city limits and just off the Parks Highway.
Alaska Railroad officials in a statement Saturday said the incident involved a woman “lying between the tracks.” The 4,700-foot freight train was northbound from Anchorage to Fairbanks.
Wasilla police said they had no information as to what led to Wilson to be on the tracks. Asked for more information about her position at the time she was hit, and whether she was moving or still, a Wasilla police spokeswoman said that remains under investigation.
Alaska Railroad Police and Alaska State Troopers also responded to the scene.
Since 2014, there have been five fatalities involving Alaska Railroad train strikes, including the Wasilla incident Friday, according to railroad spokeswoman Meghan Clemens. That number also includes an incident near Bird Point in April 2022 involving a woman walking her dog with friends, as well as a woman struck and killed in 2018 in South Anchorage.