Brea Officer Killed by Train

A Brea police detective died Wednesday after his body slammed into a fast-moving freight train as he and other officers conducted a search near railroad tracks bordering a residential neighborhood.

Terry Lee Fincher, a 16-year department veteran, had been standing near the tracks while helping to look for a discarded baseball bat believed to have been used in a crime.

Fincher apparently took a step away as the train approached, sounding its horn, and a uniformed officer ran toward him waving both arms and shouting a warning, police said.

But the 48-year-old detective was close enough to be sucked into the side of the lead locomotive by air pressure from the passing train, which was moving downhill about 50 mph, Investigator Bill Hudson said. Fincher smashed against the locomotive and was hurled down an embankment, where he was pronounced dead.

“It’s such a shame that he was killed over a baseball bat,” said Hudson, who had worked closely with Fincher throughout his career.

Fincher was a decorated Vietnam veteran, the father of two children and stepfather of two more. He had handled many of the department’s high-profile cases, including the recent arrest of a 14-year-old Yorba Linda boy accused of shooting his mother to death.

“When you lose someone like Terry, it’s like you’re losing one of your own,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Barrett McNerney. “People like him are hard to replace. I don’t know where we are going to get another Terry.”

The accident occurred about 8:30 a.m. when Fincher and several other officers were searching an area near Esperanza Road and Hickory Drive. Hours earlier, police had arrested four men in their 20s on suspicion of following a couple from a bar and beating them with a bat.

The detective had been combing a rocky area around the tracks with his back to the oncoming train, police said.

The freight train was rounding a curve, where visibility down the track was limited, said Mike Martin, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Co.

The train’s crew spotted the detective walking on the tracks when the train was about a third of a mile away, Martin said. By the time crew members hit the brakes, they were about a sixth of a mile away, he said.

“There’s not a lot of time to react when you’re traveling at around 75 feet per second,” Martin said. At 50 mph, he said, a typical freight train would need at least a mile to reach a complete stop.

The train’s crew blew the horn and flashed lights, and Fincher stepped back off the tracks, Martin and police said. Though Fincher stepped away, he was pulled into the train by what engineers call the Bernoulli principle--the same phenomenon that causes a piece of paper thrown from a fast-moving car to fly back toward the vehicle.

The train, with two engines pulling 19 cars, originated in Kansas City and was heading for Los Angeles. Because it was traveling downhill, the train might have been more quiet than usual, Martin said.

Police estimated that Fincher was just a few feet from the train when the accident occurred. The side of the train juts out about two feet from the tracks, Martin said.

“It could have been prevented had we known that the police were conducting an investigation near the railroad tracks,” Martin said. “Normally, we do get notifications during such events.”

Had notification of the search been made, Martin said, railroad officials would have dispatched employees with radios to stop the train or reduce speed as needed.

Police Sgt. Tom Flenniken said officers normally don’t call railroad officials if they think an investigation can be conducted safely without such notice.

Angela Eck, 32, who was in her house about 150 yards from the tracks when the accident happened, said she heard the train’s horn blowing and felt vibrations as it passed.

“I thought it was unusual because the train doesn’t go through any intersections there,” she said. “The only reason for it to blow its horn would have been someone being on the tracks.”

Eck and other nearby residents were shocked and saddened Wednesday morning as they watched investigators tape off the accident scene. Many expressed disbelief when they learned the officer’s death was related to an incident earlier that morning, when a white Jeep loaded with four men had shrieked through the neighborhood.

One neighbor taped yellow and red roses to a pole in the detective’s memory. Police officers, some crying, stopped by to mourn their colleague.

Fincher was the second Brea officer to die in line of duty in the department’s 81-year history. Officer Danny Valenzuela suffered a heart attack during training exercises a year ago today.

“It’s just unbelievably sad,” Yorba Linda Councilwoman Barbara Kiley said between tears. “It’s a great a loss for his family, the Police Department and the city of Yorba Linda,” which contracts with Brea for police service.

In a one-year stint with the Air Force in Vietnam, Fincher served as a chief mechanic of an F-4 squadron. He worked as a reserve officer before joining the Brea police force in 1980 and has received numerous awards, including the department’s medal of honor, officer of the year award and a commendation from the state attorney general’s office.

Fincher was a senior detective who worked as a peer counselor and was trained in sign language. In his spare time, he enjoyed teaching elementary school students how to play basketball.

Colleagues talked about how Fincher went out of way to comfort friends during hard times and often volunteered for assignments.

“He’s outstanding with no room for improvement,” Hudson said.

Fincher is survived by his wife, Brenda, children Edie, 23, of Texas, and Erik, 25; and stepchildren Melissa Scott, 16, and Nathan Scott, 20. He also has a 2-year-old grandson.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Train Tragedy

Brea Police Officer Terry Lee Fincher, searching railroad tracks for a discarded weapon, slammed into a passing train and was killed. How it happened:

Concrete wall

10-15 feet

2-3 feet

20 feet

Esperanza Road

1. Warned of oncoming train traveling at 50 mph, officer steps away from tracks.

2. Passing train creates vacuum, sucks officer into side of locomotive.

3. Body bounces off train, down embankment.

Source: Brea Police Department