Man Killed by Train Identified by Police
FULLERTON — Police have identified the man killed by an Amtrak train on the tracks near the Fullerton station as Carlos Lopez, 31, of Westminster.
An Amtrak spokesman said the company believes, based on reports by employees at the scene, that Lopez was already dead when the train struck him at 8:45 p.m. Monday. But police and a coroner’s spokesman said they could not confirm that.
“He was lying down in the middle of the track,†said Rudy Sanchez, a police officer for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which owns and maintains the tracks. “When they saw him, they couldn’t stop fast enough, and they ran over him.â€
The accident occurred about 300 yards west of Euclid Street, roughly half a mile from the spot where a MetroLink train had struck a 13-year-old boy about five hours earlier. The boy, who was walking down the tracks wearing stereo headphones, leaped away at the last moment, sustaining a fractured leg and pelvis.
“He’s very lucky he’s alive,†said Mike Martin, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Martin said the stretch of track where the two accidents occurred is not known as a particularly high-risk area. “Unfortunately,†he said, “these kinds of incidents seem to run in strings. I have no idea why.â€
While the company posts no-trespassing signs at regular intervals along the tracks, Sanchez said, those near the site where Lopez was struck apparently had been removed by vandals at the time of the accident.
“No sooner do we put them up than they tear them down,†the officer said, adding that he had ordered new signs to be installed by the end of the week.
Both Sanchez and Martin, however, discounted the missing signs as a contributing factor in Monday’s fatal accident.
“I don’t care how many signs you put up,†Sanchez said. “People who want to take a shortcut just pass right by them.â€
According to Martin, in fact, sign vandalism is a constant problem on railroad tracks throughout the country.
“It’s been a chronic situation in urban areas, not just on this stretch of track or in Orange County,†he said. “It is very difficult, virtually impossible, to keep people off of railroad tracks everywhere.â€
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