Gilroy
– A man died after being struck by a train just north of
Leavesley Road in Gilroy Tuesday afternoon.
The Hispanic adult male was walking southbound on the train
tracks that run parallel to Monterey Road, between Pierce Street
and Leavesley about 1pm Tuesday.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – A man died after being struck by a train just north of Leavesley Road in Gilroy Tuesday afternoon.
The Hispanic adult male was walking southbound on the train tracks that run parallel to Monterey Road, between Pierce Street and Leavesley about 1pm Tuesday.
“He didn’t respond to the sound of the train’s horn,” said Edward Jesus, an officer with Union Pacific Railroad’s police department.
The driver of the train saw the man – whose identity is unknown – on the tracks and sounded his horn, Jesus said, but the man never looked up and did not step off the tracks. The driver engaged in an emergency stop but was unable to bring the train to a halt in time.
“Even when you go to emergency stop, it’s not going to stop right away,” he said.
Trains cannot stop quickly: A freight train moving at 55 mph can take a mile or more to stop, according to Operation Lifesaver, a non-profit group dedicated to ending collisions, injuries and fatalities on railroads.
Once the train did come to a stop, about 12 cars passed the location of the man’s body several feet east of the tracks. The cars were separated from the rear of the train, and the train remained stopped until 3:05pm, while Gilroy and Union Pacific police investigated and waited for Coroner’s officials to arrive.
The incident is still under investigation, police said. Coroners recovered the body and will release his identity after notifying next of kin.
California has the most pedestrian railroad track trespass fatalities in the nation, according to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration. In 2003, 84 people in this state died while walking on railroad tracks.
