Train Kills Man and His Dog Walking Along Railroad Tracks

A man jumped in front of an Amtrak train heading southbound through Ventura on Tuesday, killing him and his dog.

The man, who was unidentified Tuesday night, had been walking along the railroad tracks along Harbor Boulevard east of California Street at about 5 p.m. when he jumped in front of the oncoming train, witnesses said.

“We saw him walking along the tracks and we thought he was playing chicken with the train,” said Jason Orick, 18, of Oxnard. “He walked right in front of the train.”

Orick and two friends were waiting for the train to pass when they saw the man on the tracks near the Ventura Freeway’s southbound on-ramp, they said. “He jumped right in the middle of the tracks when it was a couple feet away,” said Sean Wright, 21, of Ventura. “He caught a corner of the train.”

Orick, Wright and Kirk Nielsen, 22, of Point Mugu, ran a red light to get to a phone to call for help, they said.

The man was dismembered, and the dog fell to the freeway shoulder below the railroad tracks.

The 10-car Coast Starlight Amtrak train had been bound from Seattle to Los Angeles.