Train Kills Boy Walking on Tracks : Metrolink: He was listening to music on a headset and looking at a magazine when he was struck, officials say.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  A teen-age boy was struck and killed by a Metrolink train traveling faster than 75 m.p.h. Wednesday as he walked on the tracks reading a men’s magazine and listening to music on a headset, authorities said.

The victim was walking east on the tracks, just north of the railroad crossing at the intersection of Whitsett Avenue and Raymer Street about a mile north of Burbank Airport, said Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

The accident occurred on the line from Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles, one of four lines served by Metrolink commuter trains, Hidalgo said. The youth, who had not been identified, ignored repeated blasts on the train’s horn by the engineer as the train came up behind him about 3:35 p.m., Hidalgo said. The mid-day commuter train was carrying about 20 passengers from Moorpark to Union Station, Hidalgo said.

The 100-ton train struck the victim at about 77 m.p.h., and it took about a quarter of a mile to stop after the accident, Hidalgo said.

Police found remnants of a magazine featuring naked women scattered along the tracks, Hidalgo said.

Passengers aboard the train, as well as passengers in Glendale and Burbank waiting to board the train, were bused to their destination, he added.

The dead youth was the ninth person to die in a Metrolink accident this year, and the 12th since the commuter train began operations in October, 1992, Hidalgo said. Four of those deaths have been ruled suicides, he added.

Four people have died on the Santa Clarita line, on a two-mile stretch of track that runs through the cities of San Fernando and Pacoima. Since those deaths, several safety measures have been added, including fences to seal off access to pedestrians and increased police patrols to ward off trespassers.