2 Men Killed in Unrelated Metrolink Incidents

Two men were killed Monday by Metrolink trains in separate incidents, raising the number of Los Angeles commuter-train deaths to three in the past four days.

Metrolink officials said it is the first time two people have died in separate incidents on a single day since the train service began in 1992.

“It is a very unusual occurrence,” said Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo.

The latest death was Monday at about 5:20 p.m. when a 41-year-old man wearing headphones and listening to loud music was struck from behind as he walked on the train tracks between Riverdale Drive and Goodwin Avenue on the southeast border of Glendale, Hidalgo said.

The man, whose identity was being withheld until his family was notified, lived nearby and often used the railroad tracks as a short cut from his bus stop to home, say authorities who interviewed the man’s roommate.

“He did not heed any of the warnings,” Hidalgo said, including the train horn. “And he was walking illegally on our tracks.”

The train was traveling about 70 m.p.h. after leaving the Glendale train station with no passengers aboard, Hidalgo said.

Earlier, in San Fernando, witnesses told police that a man in his 30s was killed when he intentionally dove into the path of a Metrolink commuter train at a rail crossing. The man’s identity has also been withheld pending notification of relatives.

San Fernando police said witnesses saw this man lingering at the Brand Boulevard rail crossing about 9:45 a.m. Monday.

When the Metrolink train--headed south from Santa Clarita to Downtown--approached the crossing, the signal arm went down, red lights started flashing and warning bells began ringing, said Lt. Dan Peavy of the San Fernando Police Department.

Then the man began crossing the tracks, witnesses told police.

As the 400-ton train approached at 60 m.p.h., witnesses said the man lunged toward it.

“He literally timed his dive in front of the train,” Hidalgo said. “People who saw it said he purposely went low.” The train traveled a quarter-mile before it could stop.

Witnesses told police that the victim, judging by his appearance, “may have been homeless,” Peavy said.

None of the 19 passengers aboard the train was injured.

On Friday evening, 21-year-old Barry Alfred George of Northridge died after he walked into the path of an oncoming Metrolink train in Northridge.

“Suicides are unpredictable and random acts, and there’s nothing you can do,” Hidalgo said.

Officials said suicides account for about half of the 28 fatalities that have occurred on Metrolink tracks since the commuter train service began operating.