Chula Vista
A trolley sliced a car in two late Sunday night, carrying the passenger compartment down 300 feet of track and killing the driver, police reported.
The incident occurred at the trolley crossing on Anita Street shortly after 9 p.m. when a car driven by Claudia Ramirez, 19, tried to cross the tracks while the warning gates were down, according to the account that the trolley’s driver provided to Chula Vista police.
The trolley driver, 25-year-old Lisa Jenson, told police that she tried to brake but was unable to stop the southbound trolley before it struck Ramirez’s car, according to Sara Turner of the Chula Vista Police Department. Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene.
Turner said Juan Isunza, the victim’s boyfriend, explained that he had been arguing with Ramirez a few minutes before the accident and got out of the car at a nearby intersection. After witnessing the accident, Isunza said, he ran down the tracks and tried unsuccessfully to free Ramirez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The accident is under investigation by the city’s traffic unit.
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