Illegal Alien Hit on Tracks by Speeding Amtrak Train

A 23-year-old man was critically injured when he was struck by an Amtrak train on the Santa Fe railroad tracks near the 11800 block of Sorrento Valley Road, the San Diego Fire Department said.

Guadalupe Lopez Gonzalez, 23, an illegal alien from Mexico, suffered head injuries and was in critical condition Monday night at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, nursing supervisor Carla Badd said.

Lopez and three other men were walking across a trestle near Torrey Pines State Park about 9 a.m. when the train, traveling at 79 m.p.h., came down the tracks, a Fire Department spokeswoman said.

The three unidentified men jumped from the bridge, and two of them suffered leg injuries. Lopez was struck by the train.

Fire Department paramedics treated Lopez at the scene, but he was later taken to Scripps Hospital by a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department helicopter.

Alfredo Huelta, 21, who also was walking along the tracks at the time of the accident, said Lopez and the others were halfway across the bridge when the train approached and they seemed confused as to what to do. Huelta said the train sounded its whistle five or six times as a warning before striking Lopez.