2 Survive Tries at Suicide in Vehicles’ Paths

In unrelated incidents Thursday, two people tried to kill themselves by standing in front of oncoming vehicles, authorities said.

Both people survived the suicide attempts, which followed the death of a Huntington Park woman early Tuesday after she walked into traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway.

In the first of Thursday’s incidents, police said a 65-year-old transient stood in the path of an oncoming freight train in Fullerton and was struck about 3:30 a.m. She was in critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

“According to the conductor, the woman stood up and faced the train directly and made no effort to remove herself from the tracks, having ample time to do so,” Fullerton Police Sgt. Joe Klein said.

She suffered abdominal injuries and arm and leg fractures, hospital spokeswoman Kim Pine said, and was in surgery Thursday evening to repair her partially severed left arm.

In the other incident, a man in his 20s threw himself in front of an oncoming vehicle in the 300 block of West Edinger Avenue in Santa Ana about 2:30 p.m., Police Sgt. Raul Luna said.

The man was transported to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with moderate injuries.

Susana Garcia of Huntington Park was killed about 1 a.m. Tuesday when she walked into oncoming traffic near the Lake Forest exit off the northbound Santa Ana Freeway, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Garcia, who was a car passenger, complained of feeling ill and asked the driver to pull over, investigators said. She then got out of the vehicle and walked onto the freeway, where she was struck by a car and a big rig. She was declared dead at the scene.