TheCount.com has learned, an 11-year-old Polk County, Florida girl, who died after being struck by an Amtrak train Wednesday afternoon, was looking at her cell-phone with headphones in her ears while crossing the tracks, the train’s engineer told police.
The girl, identified as Yazmin White, of Haines City, had headphones in her ears and was looking at her cellphone when the train hit her, confirmed to the Polk County Sheriff’s Department.
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White was pronounced dead at the scene, just a few hundred feet from her family’s home.
“She certainly didn’t hear the train or she wouldn’t have walked up on the track,” Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference Thursday. “The engineer blew that horn solid for probably a quarter of a mile.”
The train, with 12 passenger cars and two locomotives, was traveling at 68 mph at the time of the accident, according to officials.
The conductor, who isn’t expected to face charges, said he tried to brake and blew the horn multiple times but White never looked up, WFTS reported.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends at this difficult time.