Accident occurs two days after 18-year-old dies in Morgan Hill
train fatality
By Jessica Thy Nguyen Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – South County’s second fatal train accident in the past two days claimed the life of a Gilroy man Friday night.
About 6pm, a Union Pacific freight train traveling southbound, struck the man who was walking along the tracks at 6th Street.
“We believe we know exactly who he is,” Gilroy Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Kurt Svardal said. “But we’re waiting to notify family.”
The scene was crowded with bystanders, but no witnesses were available to describe the accident.
“He was walking down the track and the train blew it’s horn,” said a Union Pacific worker called to the scene of the accident. He declined to give his name. “I heard over the dispatch – the conductor saying that the man turned around and flipped him off.”
But Svardal said he does not believe the man tried to commit suicide because of how the accident occurred. Svardal said the man was walking along the tracks on one side and when the conductor honked his horn, the man raised his hands in acknowledgment of the oncoming train.
“Usually when someone does a suicide attempt they’re in the middle of the tracks,” Svardal said.
There are two sets of tracks running parallel at 6th and Railroad streets, and Svardal said investigators believe the man thought the train was coming on the other track.
Union Pacific officials were at the scene of the accident examining the brakes to ensure the equipment was working properly, Svardal said.
“In a situation like this, trains have the right of way,” he said. “They can’t stop for pedestrians. The conductor did what he was supposed to do.”
Police were waiting for Santa Clara County coroner to retrieve the body.
Friday’s fatality brings the number of fatal train accidents this year to three. Just Wednesday, Victor Adrian Sandoval, an 18-year-old Morgan Hill man, was killed as he attempted to jump across railroad tracks in front of an oncoming freight train in Morgan Hill.
Sandoval was with friends near the skate park that backs up to the Caltrain Depot and apparently decided to cross in front of the train, despite warning signals from the nearby pedestrian crosswalk, Morgan Hill police said.
On Jan. 22, Nathan Schrock, 21, was injured and his passenger, 18-year-old Gilroy resident Jackie Gamboa, was killed when he apparently tried to cross the tracks in front of an oncoming commuter train.
Gamboa was pronounced dead at the scene. Schrock suffered serious injuries, including trauma to the head and a gash on his thigh. He was flown to Regional Medical Center, where he recovered consciousness the following day.
He later turned himself in after a $50,000 warrant was issued for his arrest. He was booked into Santa Clara County Jail, later posted bail and is waiting for his arraignment scheduled for Sept. 19 in San Martin.
