4th pedestrian in two weeks killed by Metrolink train

For the fourth time in the last two weeks -- and the third in Orange County -- a pedestrian was killed after ending up in the path of an oncoming Metrolink train.

The latest incident happened about 8:55 a.m. Tuesday when a person ran up to a rail crossing between the Anaheim and Orange stations at Eckhoff Street in Orange, stopped and then appeared to jump in front of the train, said Jeff Lustgarten, a Metrolink spokesman.

Lustgarten said he did not yet know the person’s gender.

None of the approximately 200 people in the Metrolink train were injured, but the incident set trains about an hour behind schedule, Lustgarten said. Amtrak and Metrolink trains and buses were used to get commuters around the accident, and by about 12:30 p.m., trains were almost back on schedule.

Lustgarten said though it was too early to know why the man ended up in front of the train, suicides by train are not unusual. And because it can take a train half a mile to a mile to stop, they can be almost impossible to prevent.

He cited the case of a man who about a month ago ran across the 10 Freeway near Cal State L.A. to get to the median, where the Metrolink trains run. It was a Friday during the peak of the evening rush hour, Lustgarten said.

“He ran across the freeway and somehow did not get hit by a car, probably because the traffic was so bad it wasn’t moving,” he said. “He hopped over a fence to get access to our right-of-way and stepped in front of the train…. He was a very determined individual.”

Last Friday night, a Metrolink official said a group of taggers were scrawling graffiti near that area when they spotted a train heading east toward San Bernardino. Two of the young men crossed the tracks to leave, but a third doubled back, apparently to finish his work. He was killed.

In Orange County, two other pedestrians have been killed by Metrolink trains in the last two weeks, Lustgarten said. One was killed in Fullerton on April 26 while on foot, and another was killed while riding a bike in Anaheim on April 29, he said.

Lustgarten said more often than not, when pedestrians are killed, it appears the deaths were suicides. He said the deaths are traumatic not only for the families of the people who die, but for the train engineers and even passengers.

“There probably hasn’t been an engineer in that position for a reasonable length of time who hasn’t experienced it,” Lustgarten said. “The cascading effect is pretty phenomenal.”

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hector.becerra@latimes.com