3 people died, including a child, after an Amtrak train hit a truck in New York

Three people, including a 6-year-old boy, have died after the truck they were in was struck by an Amtrak train in New York, officials confirmed.

On Friday, May 17, the passenger train traveling north from New York City to Niagara Falls collided with a truck in North Tonawanda, resulting in the deaths of a 69-year-old man, a 66-year-old woman and of a six-year-old boy led the North Tonawanda Police Department and Amtrak.

The names of the victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene, have not been released as the crash remains under investigation.

According to police, the train struck the victim’s Dodge pickup at 7:56 p.m. local time in North Tonawanda, a city in Niagara County about 13 miles from the Canadian border.

Amtrak told CBS News and CNN in a statement that the car was on the tracks at the time of the accident.

“No injuries were reported to the 21 passengers or crew on board. Amtrak is working with local law enforcement to investigate the incident,” the spokesperson told CBS.

North Tonawanda Professional Firefighters Local 1333 wrote in a Facebook post that crew members from Platoon 4 responded to the scene at the intersection of Felton Street and River Road, where they spent about two hours attempting to rescue three passengers in the car from the crash.

Firefighters initially attempted to revive the passengers but later stopped after they were determined to be dead at the scene, North Tonawanda police Capt. Daryl Truty wrote in the statement.

“We ask that you respect the privacy of the victim’s families and the first responders who were on scene,” Truty added.

Collisions between vehicles and trains are a leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States, according to Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit organization that collects rail safety data from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Last year alone, more than 2,100 accidents resulted in 248 deaths and more than 750 injuries.

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Operation Lifesaver, which also provides information about how pedestrians and drivers can stay safe around trains and railroads, recommends that all drivers and pedestrians maintain a distance of 15 feet from train tracks, cross train tracks only at designated intersections, and in the Stay alert at all near tracks.

“The average locomotive weighs about 400,000 pounds or 200 tons; it can weigh up to 6,000 tons,” the organization wrote on its website. “This means that the weight ratio of a car to a train is proportional to that of a soda can to a car.”