Train Kills Man Sneaking Into Drive-In

A Metrolink train struck and killed a 23-year-old Encino man in Chatsworth on Friday as he tried to sneak into a drive-in theater by dashing across railroad tracks, the fourth Metrolink casualty since the commuter train service began in October.

A man identified by friends as Eric Pola was killed at the grade-crossing at Winnetka Avenue, just north of Nordhoff Street, by a Metrolink train speeding west toward Moorpark.

Pola tripped and fell as he followed two friends in a dash across the tracks, Los Angeles police said. His body was found about 200 feet from where he was hit, Officer John Teetor said.

Pola and two friends had gotten out of a car driven by Ira Hyman, 34, of North Hills, planning to sneak into the Winnetka Six Drive-In Theater on the other side of the tracks, said Pola’s girlfriend, Melissa Malvin, 23, of Canoga Park.

They planned to meet Malvin and Hyman inside the drive-in, said the shaken woman, who saw Pola struck by the train as she waited in the car to cross the tracks.

“I loved him so much,” she said, fighting back tears. Pola played guitar in a band called the Bliss Addicts, she said. “We were planning to spend the rest of our lives together.”

“I watched my friend die in less than a second,” said Robert Simon, of Van Nuys, who crossed the tracks in time to turn around and watch Pola stumble before the onrushing train. “He was my best friend in the world.”

Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said that the train’s crew and 25 passengers escaped injury.

On Dec. 28, Epifanio Ascencio Lopez, 31, of Pacoima died instantly when he walked onto railroad tracks in Pacoima. A week before that, Kurt Anderson, 34, of Simi Valley threw himself in front of a train on the Moorpark line in Simi Valley. In late November, dump-truck driver Jaime Farizz, 37, of Los Angeles, was killed when a train on the Santa Clarita line slammed into his truck at an unguarded crossing in Pacoima.