5 Men Pushing Car Along Track Killed by Train Near Oceanside

Five men believed to be undocumented aliens were killed when the car they were pushing along a railroad track was hit by an Amtrak passenger train, officials said Saturday.

Amtrak spokesman Arthur Lloyd said the men were pushing a 1968 Dodge south on the Santa Fe Railroad tracks when the southbound Los Angeles-to-San Diego train, going about 70 m.p.h., rounded a curve and collided with the auto about 10:15 p.m. Friday.

There was “no grade crossing, no crossing anywhere in the vicinity,” Lloyd said, adding that the nearest automobile crossing was in Oceanside, about one mile south of the collision site.

The engineer sounded his air horn when he saw the car, but witnesses said the men continued pushing the vehicle, investigators said.

“From the looks of things, they were all undocumented (aliens),” said Joseph Cogen, deputy coroner for San Diego County, adding that the chances of identifying the men were “very, very slim.”

The train was at the southern edge of the Camp Pendleton Marine base, about 50 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border, when the accident occurred, Lloyd said. About 100 people were aboard the train.