Train Hits, Kills Woman on Trestle Over River : Ventura: The victim was attempting to rescue her dog as a Southern Pacific freight approached.

A Ventura woman strolling on the railroad trestle over the Ventura River was struck and killed by a locomotive when she tried to save her dog from the approaching train early Thursday, authorities said.

Tina Alamillo, 48, was struck on the head by the V-shaped cow guard of the southbound Southern Pacific freight train as it approached the Ventura County Fairgrounds shortly after 7 a.m., Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene, her body thrown by the train against the rusted railing of the 200-yard bridge that spans the river and its wetlands, just west of a bicycle path.

A friend walking with her, Herbert Summers of Ventura, and the dog were not injured by the 1 1/4-mile-long freight train that passed within inches of them at about 35 m.p.h., Ventura Police Sgt. Douglas Auldridge said.

The woman’s son, George Galvan, 18, was getting ready for school at their nearby duplex on Wall Street when a friend, who had seen the accident from the bicycle path, hurried to give Galvan the news.

“It’s tragic, is what it is,” Auldridge said.

He recalled Galvan’s words when he learned that his mother had tried to save their Staffordshire bull terrier. “She would do that. She loved that dog,” Galvan told the police officer.

Summers, 28, told investigators he and Alamillo were walking west on the bridge, away from Ventura, when the two-engine train approached them head-on.

As the pair pressed against the guard rail, with about 18 inches of clearance between it and the train, the unleashed dog suddenly became spooked and lurched into the path of the engine, Stevens said.

He said Alamillo, who apparently had been holding the 45- to 60-pound dog by the scruff of the neck, reached out for him and was struck by the cow-catcher of the locomotive.

Her son identified her at the scene, Stevens said.

Mike Furtney, a spokesman for Southern Pacific in San Francisco, said the rail line tries to dissuade pedestrians from trespassing on their bridges, such as the Ventura River bridge.

In April, a 12-year-old boy was struck by a train on the same bridge but escaped with minor injuries. Nationwide, Furtney said, 523 pedestrians and 626 motorists were killed in 1993 while crossing paths with trains.

He said the 2,406-ton train was en route Thursday to Long Beach from Oakland with an empty string of flat cars. The speed limit for trains crossing the bridge is 30 m.p.h., he said, and the locomotives can weigh as much as 400 tons.