Train Kills Man Trying to Rescue Dog : Camarillo: The 52-year-old electrician was recuperating from a heart attack. He was on his daily walk with the family pet, which was not injured.

Everyone knew that Roger Earhart loved his dog Scamper, a tiny, white mixed-breed beagle that had been the family pet for more than 15 years.

When Earhart had a heart attack in July, Scamper became a part of the 52-year-old electrician’s recovery plan. The two went on daily walks that often took them to Lewis and Las Posas roads in Camarillo, just half a mile from Earhart’s ranch-style home.

On Tuesday, Earhart was trying to put Scamper on a leash just after 10 a.m. when an Amtrak passenger train heading north to Santa Barbara approached the intersection, its shrill whistle piercing the morning air.

As the frightened dog bolted toward the tracks, Earhart frantically tried to stop him.

Scamper somehow managed to avoid the train’s path, but Earhart did not.

He was struck by the train at 10:13 a.m. and died instantly, Ventura County Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said.

Kelly Baker had just arrived at LA Workout, a fitness club across the street from the tracks, when she saw the accident.

“He was chasing the dog and yelling for it to come to him,” the aerobics instructor said. “All of a sudden I heard this really loud noise, and then I saw all this stuff flying through the air.”

Tuesday evening, Earhart’s wife and children struggled to make sense of the day’s events, while Scamper--who wandered home late in the day--growled and paced nervously in the living room.

“He just loved his dog, and I guess he just didn’t think,” said Earhart’s wife, Anna. “They tell me he tried to get Scamper off the tracks and just didn’t get back in time.”

Earhart’s son, Steven, said Scamper was special to everyone in the family, but “it was my dad who really loved it. When you have a dog for that long, it becomes like your kid.

“I probably would’ve done the same thing. Any of us might have,” he said.

Earhart’s daughter, Edie, said it was hard to believe that her father had been hit by a train. “He was just walking our dog there,” she said, fighting back tears.

Earhart is the third Ventura County resident to die in a train accident this year. Nine were killed near railroad tracks in 1990.

Prompted by the high number of accidents last year, officials from the Ventura County Transportation Commission developed an education program aimed at making residents more aware of the dangers trains can pose.

Edie Earhart said her father’s death should convince people that trains are still a hazard.

“This can happen to anyone. If anything, that’s really what we want people to know, especially the children who play around here.”

Officials from Southern Pacific railroad and Amtrak were unavailable for comment on the accident.

Two Southern Pacific investigators examined the scene Tuesday afternoon and searched for witnesses, but declined to comment about the accident.