Metrolink Train Strikes, Kills Man in Simi Valley : Transit: Authorities say the victim may have committed suicide. The incident interrupts rail travel.

An unidentified man was struck and killed by a Metrolink commuter train in Simi Valley on Christmas Eve in what authorities said was an apparent suicide.

The accident occurred at 5:30 p.m. on tracks along Los Angeles Avenue, just west of the Erringer Street intersection, police said.

The train engineer told police that seconds before the accident he saw the man peering out at the train from behind a tree near the railroad tracks.

“As the train came up, he popped out from behind the tree and dove right in front of it,” Officer Butch Hale said.

“The engineer said there was a trespasser on the railroad tracks and that he did not move when he saw the train,” Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman, said. “We blew our horn and put on the brakes and we struck the individual. It’s very unfortunate.”

The train, which was carrying about two dozen passengers, dragged the man about half a mile before it was able to stop, Hale said.

Metrolink officials said the westbound commuter train, which carried 200 passengers, left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles at 4:20 p.m. It was the first of four westbound trains making the 47-mile trip to Moorpark on Thursday afternoon.

The train, which also stops in Glendale, Burbank, Van Nuys and Chatsworth, had just dropped off passengers at the Simi Valley station and was headed into Moorpark when the accident occurred.

Each train consists of one diesel locomotive and three periwinkle-and-white double-decked passenger cars. Trains can go as fast as 80 m.p.h., but it was not known how fast the train was going at the time of the accident.

Four Metrolink trains were delayed on the tracks for about two hours until the coroner arrived.

A few passengers were let off the train at the accident site when family or friends, who had been waiting for them at the Moorpark station, learned of the accident and arrived to pick them up.

Among the few passengers still aboard the commuter trains when they arrived in Moorpark after 8 p.m., the mood was matter-of-fact.

“This is my first time riding it,” said Don Sanders of Los Angeles. “It’s a hassle, but I’ll ride it again if I need to.”

The Metrolink accident also interrupted the Christmas Eve plans of more than 150 travelers bound for San Diego from Santa Barbara aboard an Amtrak train, an Amtrak official said.

James Bailey of Santa Barbara, on his way to Fullerton, boarded the Amtrak train at 3:15 p.m. He had been scheduled to arrive in Fullerton at 6:45 p.m., but he was still in Moorpark about 8:15 p.m.

“It doesn’t bother me, I travel all the time,” Bailey said about the wait for a bus to take the passengers to Los Angeles or San Diego. “The impatient ones got on the first bus screaming and hollering. There was a lot of screaming going on.”

Terry Shaw of Santa Barbara also said the wait did not upset him. With a brother-in-law serving with the Marines in Somalia, Shaw said his own troubles were minor in comparison with those elsewhere. “There are people worse off in other places. This is the second Christmas in a row (his brother-in-law) has missed. Last year he was in the Gulf.”

It was the second rail-related accident in the county in a week. On Dec. 18, three Oxnard men were killed when an eastbound Amtrak train slammed into their van as it crossed a private, unguarded crossing west of Moorpark.

Thursday’s fatality, however, was the first Metrolink-related death in the county since the double-deck trains began running Oct. 26 from stations in Moorpark and Simi Valley.

Los Angeles County has recorded one Metrolink fatality.

A Los Angeles city truck driver was killed Nov. 25 in Pacoima when a Metrolink train traveling at 77 m.p.h. hit his truck. An autopsy showed that the truck driver, Jaime Farias, 37, was alcohol- and drug-free. Investigators have still not determined why Farias was in the unmarked crossing when the train came through.

With more high-speed passenger trains being put on line in Southern California, there have been fears that there will be more rail-related accidents. That concern has been borne out in Los Angeles, where the 22-mile Blue Line has had more than 130 accidents at crossings since its debut in July, 1990.

Ventura County transportation officials said that Thursday’s accident, though regrettable, probably will not affect the commuter rail operations.

Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis, who represents Ventura County on the Southern California Regional Rail Authority that set up Metrolink, said there is little a rail line can do to prevent suicides.

“If someone is going to wait for a train and step out in front of it, there’s not much you can do about it,” Davis said. “When there’s an accident and you can identify something that’s wrong, you can fix it.”

Davis said he believed that the number of fatalities associated with trains would decrease over time. “The crossings and tracks have been upgraded so much, the fatalities should drop instead of increasing,” he said.

Ginger Gherardi, head of the county Transportation Commission, called the accident “terribly unfortunate,” but said she was unsure what the rail authority could do to prevent suicides.

“The fatality has put a damper on the holidays for a lot of people who were on the train,” Gherardi said.

Times correspondent Patrick McCartney contributed to this report.