Young Couple Walking on Tracks Killed by Train : Tragedy: Authorities speculate that the fatalities may have been suicides. Seven people have died after being struck on Metrolink routes since service began in October.

A commuter train struck and killed a teen-age San Fernando couple as they walked along railroad tracks in Sylmar on Friday, raising the death toll to seven--five within a seven-mile stretch of track--since Metrolink service began in October.

A police spokeswoman said detectives were investigating the possibility that the couple--a youth who had escaped from a juvenile detention center and his girlfriend who spent most of her life in foster homes--committed suicide, steadfastly looking at a collection of photos and ignoring the engineer’s frantic whistling as the train bore down on them at 50 m.p.h.

“They didn’t turn around,” said Carol Hicks, who said she saw the couple walking between the tracks with their backs to the locomotive.

“They didn’t look back or anything.”

Marc Charles Ballin, 16, of San Fernando was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Flora Carpio, 15, also of San Fernando died about three hours later as she underwent surgery at Holy Cross Medical Center, authorities said.

“She jumped at the last split-second,” said LAPD Traffic Detective Anthony Bartolotto.

“I don’t know what they were doing . . . or what they were thinking. They were hit so hard their clothes were thrown off their bodies.

“They tried to keep her alive, but . . . ,” Bartolotto said.

Police said the two were boyfriend and girlfriend, that both had been in and out of foster homes much of their lives. LAPD spokeswoman Sharyn Michelson said Ballin had escaped last week from MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte and recently found Carpio.

Police are investigating the possibility that the two committed suicide, especially because the horn was sounded for at least 45 seconds before the couple were struck, Michelson said. Two previous Metrolink victims committed suicide.

Ballin and Carpio were the fourth and fifth victims killed on a seven-mile stretch of track in the Pacoima-Sunland area. Engineer Ken Clanahan, who was at the controls, was also driving the train when two previous victims were hit, said Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman.

The incident comes in the wake of an aggressive campaign to educate the public about rail safety, he said.

“Despite Metrolink’s best efforts,” Hidalgo said, some residents continue to “flagrantly ignore signals” and other warnings. “This is a continual concern for Metrolink.”

The incident occurred just north of the intersection of San Fernando Road and Hubbard and Truman streets about 8:29 a.m.

The Santa Clarita-bound train left Union Station at 7:53 a.m. and was traveling at 50 m.p.h. when the engineer saw the pair “heads down, apparently looking at pictures,” Hidalgo said.

“The engineer repeatedly blew his horn and noticed the individuals did not respond and immediately applied his air brakes,” Hidalgo said.

The train traveled for a quarter to half a mile before stopping. The train’s four passengers and three Metrolink crew members were uninjured.

Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff John Sullivan, a passenger, said he “heard the horn blow consistently 45 to 50 seconds before impact.”

Sullivan, an emergency medical technician, administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the girl and provided other medical assistance until paramedics arrived. The boy was already dead.

A visibly shaken Sullivan said he has had many experiences as a peace officer and medical technician, but “the value of human life always makes this hard to handle.”

As part of the Sheriff’s Transit Police, the deputy rides trains “for enforcement, patrolling and safety purposes,” Hidalgo said.

The tracks where the accident occurred run next to a large field and are across the street from a strip of motels and motor homes. Investigators found color Polaroid photographs and books on the train tracks near the spot where the two were hit. One photo shows a smiling teen-age girl with her arms folded, standing next to a boy wearing a White Sox jacket. Another shows what appears to be the same boy dressed in a sweat shirt with another boy. It was not clear whether the boy and girl in the photos were Ballin and Carpio, police said.

Metrolink Deaths Five people have been killed by Metrolink trains along a seven-mile stretch from San Fernando to Sun Valley. They are: 1. March 5: Marc Charles Ballin, 16, and Flora Carpio, 15, both of San Fernando, are killed as they walk along the tracks at San Fernando Road between Hubbard and Truman streets.

2. Feb. 3: Apolinar Arellano, 32, of Sun Valley is killed while sitting on the tracks near San Fernando Road and Sunland Boulevard in Sun Valley, drinking with four other men.

3. Dec. 28: Epifanio Ascencio Lopez, 31, of Pacoima dies instantly after skirting a barrier and walking onto tracks in Pacoima despite warning bells and flashing lights.

4. Nov. 25: Train broadsides a dump truck at an unguarded crossing, killing driver Jaime Farias, 37, of Los Angeles.

Two other fatalities have occurred elsewhere along the tracks in the San Fernando Valley since the Metrolink line opened Oct. 25: Jan. 22: Eric Pola, 23, of Encino is killed as he dashes across the tracks at Winnetka Avenue, just north of Nordhoff Street in Chatsworth.

Dec. 24: Kurt Anderson, 34, of Simi Valley throws himself in front of a train on the Moorpark line near Los Angeles Avenue and Erringer Street in Simi Valley.

Compiled by Times staff writer Josh Meyer