Train Heading for Station at San Juan Kills Walker

A 31-year-old man, believed to be a transient, was run over and killed by an Amtrak commuter train as it approached the station in San Juan Capistrano, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Sunday.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Tim Conner said the man died instantly after he was struck from behind at 8:03 p.m. Saturday as he walked on the Santa Fe track. He said the man was hit by the southbound train less than a mile north of the train station.

“Apparently, he was walking on the track where it curves a little there at Oso Road near Camino Capistrano,” Conner said. “The conductor just didn’t see him.”

Conner added that the train was moving slowly because it was about to make a scheduled stop at the station.

The name of the victim was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

“We’re having a hard time finding any relatives,” a coroner’s spokesman said.

Follows Santa Ana Death

The death follows by less than three weeks the death of a 10-year-old boy on railroad tracks in Santa Ana.

James Boyle and three other boys were on a railroad trestle near Fairhaven Avenue and Lincoln Street when they saw an Amtrak train approaching from the north. Three of the boys avoided the train, but James could not outrun it and was struck and killed.

Art Lloyd, the West Coast spokesman for Amtrak, said Sunday afternoon that investigations of all such incidents are turned over to local police.

“By being on the track, the man was trespassing, since the railroad is private property,” Lloyd said from the company’s West Coast office in San Francisco.

“It’s like being on a freeway and getting run over by the car. We only get involved if the incident affects our schedule or someone on the train is hurt.”

He added that Saturday night’s incident did not cause Amtrak any long delay, or cancellation, on its Los Angeles-to-San Diego route.