Oceanside
A Mexican immigrant who tried to board a slow-moving freight train in switching yards north of Oceanside fell to his death Thursday, becoming the second train fatality in the county within 24 hours.
San Diego County medical examiners identified the dead man as Alejandro Hernandez-Martinez, 24, of Acambay, Mexico.
On Wednesday afternoon, a 79-year-old Encinitas man died when he stepped onto the railroad tracks in front of a southbound Amtrak passenger train in what medical examiners said was apparently a suicide.
Hernandez-Martinez and about 15 other undocumented aliens were attempting to board the northbound Santa Fe Railway freight about 8:30 a.m. Hernandez-Martinez apparently lost his grip as he grabbed for the last car of the 59-car train and fell onto the tracks, where he was crushed by the train wheels, said Chuck Kelley, deputy medical examiner.
The train continued on to Barstow, its crew evidently unaware of the accident.
Railroad spokesman Homer Davis said the switching yards, on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and only a few hundred feet north of the Oceanside city limits, are a popular place for undocumented immigrants to catch a ride north to avoid the Immigration and Naturalization Service checkpoint at San Onofre on Interstate 5.
The train was traveling about 15 m.p.h. when the accident happened, Davis said.
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