Woman on Metrolink Tracks Killed

Rush-hour commuter trains were backed up for hours Tuesday after an unidentified woman stood on a narrow railroad bridge and let an oncoming Metrolink commuter train strike her, authorities said.

The train, going 35 to 40 m.p.h., was unable to stop as it rounded a bend on Santiago Creek Bridge just south of the Garden Grove Freeway near Fairhaven Avenue.

“The crew saw a trespassing pedestrian on the tracks and continued to blow the horn,” said Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo.

Santa Ana Sgt. Raul Luna said, “It looks like a suicide. She apparently looked at the train and covered her face and just stood in place. She had plenty of time to get off the tracks and avoid the train.”

Passengers said they were not thrown when the train tried to stop at 5:28 p.m.

“It was a big pop,” said Evelyn Silk, on her way to Oceanside. “It sounded like an air hose. It was like we hit something, not someone.”

The train, the first of three rush-hour trains from Los Angeles to Oceanside, was delayed more than two hours by investigators at the scene. The second train was delayed about an hour, Metrolink officials said, and the third about 20 minutes.

“Our trains have never been held this long,” Hidalgo said. “But we always try to cooperate with the authorities.”

Orange County buses began transporting commuters to their destinations in South County and San Diego County, but heavy traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway prompted about 150 passengers to ask the drivers to return them to the train, which then left at 7:10 p.m.

On May 12, a man was struck and killed by a Metrolink train when he backed his car onto the tracks in Laguna Niguel, Hidalgo said. There have also been a number of fatalities, both suicides and accidents, involving Metrolink trains in the San Fernando Valley.