WEST HAVEN, Conn. – A fatal accident on the Metro-North rail line occurred after an inexperienced worker sent a train onto the wrong track while a more senior employee was in the bathroom, a union representative said.

Track foreman Robert Luden, 52, died Tuesday when he was struck by a commuter train that had just left New Haven and

was heading for New York.

He had been working with other employees to move rail off of a track adjacent to the one traveled by the train that hit him.

Chris Silvera, secretary/treasurer for International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 808, said Thursday that the train was apparently put on a track that a supervisor had given “blocked” status because of the maintenance work.

“He went to the bathroom, and he was surprised at what he had seen (when he came back),” Silvera said.

An employee — “inexperienced, for sure; he’s a new guy” — apparently put the track back into an operational status in the supervisor’s absence.

“This person obviously removed the block on the track, and routed the train onto the track at normal speed, which is about 70 miles per hour,” Silvera said.