Man Hit, Killed by Train in Effort to Save His Dog

A 52-year-old Ventura man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train Monday morning during a futile effort to save his dog from the path of the onrushing locomotive.

William Collings’ girlfriend watched in horror as the commuter train roared down the track.

“She was screaming, ‘My baby, my baby,’ ” said Tammy McCarty, 31, of Lancaster, who was on a camping trip at the state beach with her family. “We thought it was her child.”

Collings was unemployed and had lived at the Seaward Inn in Ventura since the beginning of the year.

His death--the third in four years involving people along the tracks near Emma Wood State Beach--occurred during National Rail Safety Month.

The train was en route from Santa Barbara to San Diego with about 20 passengers aboard. The San Diegan was delayed for about 1 hour and 45 minutes while authorities investigated the accident.

Collings and his girlfriend, Kimberly Sullenger, were walking their two unleashed Rottweilers about 8 a.m. along the railroad tracks just outside the park boundary north of Ventura.

Sullenger told McCarty afterward that one of their dogs had frozen in fear as the train approached a slight curve in the tracks. Collings was hit as he tried to move it from the engine’s path.

Regional state parks superintendent Steve Treanor said the 11 state parks and beaches stretching from Lompoc to Oxnard are comparatively safe. He said the three deaths near Emma Wood are the only rail-related fatalities there he could recall in the last 13 years.

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“If we consider there’s 3 million people a year go through these parks, we’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “The bottom line for me is, when you choose to walk on railroad tracks you are choosing to take the chance of being hit by a train.”

Last year 78 pedestrians were killed on railroad property in the state, said Amtrak spokesman Dominick Albano. Another 20 died and 69 were injured in cars as they attempted to negotiate railroad crossings.

“California leads the nation in rail-related fatalities,” he said. “This is an unfortunate time to remind people about rail safety.”

Collings’ death is the third rail-related fatality this year in Ventura County. Authorities ruled the other two suicides.

The two other fatalities on the tracks near Emma Wood State Beach in recent years involved a 34-year-old Ventura man who was killed while standing on the narrow railroad trestle over the Ventura River estuary in 1995 and a vacationer killed a year later as she tried to cross the same bridge with her husband.

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Treanor said he is unsure what measures can be taken to prevent people from walking on railroad tracks. Trains run near many of the coastal state parks, and most of the thousands of people who cross tracks do so safely, he said.

“We will look to why this particular tragedy happened and try and see if there is a way if we can do better for the public and our visitors,” he said.