Man in Critical Condition After Train Hits Him

A 25-year-old San Pedro man was critically injured Wednesday morning when he was struck by a southbound Metro Blue Line train as it slowed to a stop at the Artesia station in Compton.

Ronald Joseph Berg apparently failed to see the trolley as he darted across the tracks to catch a waiting bus despite flashing warning lights, honking from the train and his girlfriend’s shouted warnings, witnesses said.

Berg, who had gotten off a northbound train moments earlier with Maria Deavva, stepped in front of the train, was hit on his right side and knocked to the ground, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Jackson.

Berg suffered a broken right leg and left wrist, head injuries and bruises. He was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in critical condition, Jackson said.

“Witnesses said he never saw the train,” Jackson said. “All the lights were operating, the bells were going off and the driver hit the horn and applied the brakes.”

Jackson said Berg and Deavva, who boarded the northbound train in Long Beach, got off shortly before 9:18 a.m. at the Blue Line station immediately north of the Artesia Freeway near the Compton Ramada Hotel.

“Coming off the train, they saw the bus they needed to catch in the parking lot across the track,” he said. “Berg ran down the ramp, his girlfriend walking behind him. The southbound train was pulling into the station. The girlfriend yelled as he started to go off in front of the train. He looked back, but she said he never saw the train.”

A passenger on the train told Jackson she felt the car jerk when the operator hit all three sets of brakes. “She looked out the window and saw the guy running right in front of the train,” he said. A man on the platform said he heard Deavva yelling, “Watch out for the train!” Jackson said.

A hospital spokeswoman said Berg was in critical but stable condition Wednesday and undergoing diagnostic tests for internal injuries.

Jackson said that although Berg was attempting to cross the track in an area designated for pedestrians he was crossing illegally because warning lights were flashing.

Since the opening of the Metro Blue Line in July, 1990, 13 pedestrians have been hit by trains, resulting in two deaths.