The Gilroy man killed Jan. 9 when a Union Pacific vehicle slammed into his pickup truck was identified Friday as Donald Williams, 54; the cause of death was suffocation, the Santa Clara County Corner-Medical Examiner said.
Williams’ truck was struck, turned over and pushed along the tracks by a railroad maintenance vehicle on the Union Pacific line at Masten Avenue and Monterey Road in north Gilroy while safety crossing arms designed to stop traffic were in the upright position, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The corner’s office listed the cause of death as “Positional Asphyxia.” It means the victim was trapped in the vehicle in a position that rendered him unable to breath, a spokesperson for the office said.
The victim’s name and identification had been withheld by authorities pending notification of his family.
Railroad employees at the north Gilroy scene Jan. 9 told investigators that malfunctions of the safety arms during maintenance are common, a CHP officer told the Dispatch.
The driver of the railroad vehicle was identified as Lindberg Thompson, 57, of Grants, N. M. He was not injured, the CHP said.
Union Pacific did not returned repeated phone calls seeking infornmation about the accident. But in an emailed response to a Dispatch query emailed to the company, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad expressed “sympathies to those affected by last week’s tragic accident.
“Safety is a main priority for Union Pacific”, wrote Jeff DeGraff. He said the accident is being investigated “thoroughly” but provided no further detail.
Williams’ silver 2008 Toyota Tacoma was westbound on Masten Avenue and crossing the tracks at around 12:58 pm when it was struck by a Union Pacific railroad maintenance vehicle headed southbound on the tracks that parallel Monterey Road, according to a CHP report on the collision.
“Railroad personnel on scene made statements that ‘it happens all the time’ with these vehicles that the arms don’t go down…It’s a common occurrence,” CHP Officer Herb Kellogg said.
Roughly 20 minutes before the collision, Morgan Hill resident Lolita Cavinta said she witnessed the railroad crossing arms at the intersection of Monterey Road and Church Avenue—2 miles from the crash scene—failed to stay down as maintenance vehicles passed by.
“One maintenance vehicle came by and another came by, and then the arms went up,” she said. “But I saw there were at least two others on the tracks. I asked my mom, ‘Do I go? I see them coming but the arms went up, which means you’re supposed to go.’ I had to guess because I saw them coming—and they weren’t stopping. So I just went for it. I didn’t want to get hit.”
Cavinta said she didn’t see the crossing arms go down after she’d crossed. Twenty minutes later, she checked her phone and learned of the fatal collision that took place nearby.
“I probably saw the guy who hit that truck because he probably went by while I was waiting there to turn onto Church,” she added. “If the arms weren’t working during whatever maintenance they were doing, they should have had somebody out there warning cars to stop or something.”
Authorities do not suspect that alcohol or drugs played a role in the collision at this time and no arrests were made, Kellogg said.
