The man who was struck and killed by an Amtrak Downeaster train last week was headed to a local pharmacy to pick up a prescription when the accident happened, a relative said.

Monica Bradley, 29, of Portland, said her uncle Lewis G. Bradley Jr. was about 400 feet from his destination when he was killed by the train.

“He was 400 feet away from being here with us today,” Monica Bradley said.

Lewis Bradley, 62, had recently been living with his brother in Portland and believed walking from there along the train tracks would be the fastest route to the pharmacy, Monica Bradley said.

The accident occurred on tracks that run behind the West Falmouth Crossing shopping plaza, located off Route 100, in Falmouth.

Police are still investigating the death and have declined to release details about the circumstances, pending results from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said Falmouth Police Lt. Jeff Pardue. Bradley’s remains were examined by a death investigator, but toxicology results are still incomplete, Pardue said.

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Pardue declined to speculate about the reason Lewis was on the tracks but said he’s working with the family to figure out what happened. Lewis was walking north – the same direction of travel as the train that hit him – when he died, Pardue said.

The medical examiner’s office is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death of people who die without an attending physician.

Bradley’s family said he was a native Portlander who graduated from Portland High School in 1976 before joining the U.S. Army, serving as a repairman and later as a combat medic, according to an obituary.

Following his military service, Bradley worked from 1989 to 2011 as a radiation therapist at Maine Medical Center. He was known as a consummate outdoorsman and loved riding his motorcycle to a rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. He was known for his larger-than-life personality and caring spirit, the obituary said.

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