Train Kills Boy Who Rode Bike Onto Tracks

Ignoring the engineer’s warning signals, a boy rode his bicycle around a railroad crossing barrier Wednesday and was killed by a Metrolink train traveling about 50 m.p.h., authorities said.

Witnesses told Metrolink officials and police officers that the unidentified youth ignored all warning signs not to cross the tracks at Sunland Boulevard and San Fernando Road, near the Burbank station.

“He just rode around the lowered gates,” Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. “Our engineer was blowing his horn and the youth just ignored it.”

The engineer of the Los Angeles-bound train came to a stop about a quarter of a mile south of the accident, Hidalgo said. The victim’s body was thrown about 200 feet by the impact, he said.

The train was slowing as it approached the station about 6 p.m., Hidalgo said. The posted speed limit in the area for Metrolink trains is 59 m.p.h., he added.

None of the 30 passengers or crew members aboard the train, carrying passengers from Santa Clarita, was injured, Hidalgo said.

As part of a continuing safety program, the agency conducted safety presentations at schools in the Sunland area about three months ago, Hidalgo said.

The death occurred about eight miles south of a stretch of track where four lives were lost in an eight-month period. There have been 14 fatal accidents since Metrolink began operation in October, 1992, half of them declared suicides by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.