San Juan Capistrano : Woman Who Was Hit by Train Is Identified
A woman struck by a train that was traveling 55 m.p.h. was identified Thursday as Ruth Aguilar, 35, a transient whose last known residence was in the Escondido area, the Sheriff’s Department reported.
She remained in the intensive care unit of Mission Community Hospital Thursday.
Aguilar reportedly was standing on the tracks and waving her arms near the San Juan Capistrano Amtrak depot Wednesday about 7:40 p.m. as a Santa Fe Railroad freight train approached. Unable to stop in time, the train hit her.
“You don’t slow down a freight train like a bus or a car. It takes well over a mile to stop one,” said Tom Buckley, a spokesman for Santa Fe-Southern Pacific in Los Angeles.
Aguilar suffered a broken jaw and a broken arm, Buckley said.
Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said he could not explain what the woman was doing on the tracks.
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