Death/Possible Murder Near HS#3 Site

Friends:

Yes this event was late at night, however, Rails and Students and High School Traffic DO NOT MIX WELL. I Repeat my alarm on this issue. A Freigh Derailment of a Toxic Nature, or a Bus on the tracks, or a car load of students or staff trying to get to class or practice on time. Remember Trains ALWAYS WIN...

My thoughts go to the train conductor who has to deal with the results of someone taking on a train.


Train hits body on the rails near Grand Terrace; unclear if man was already dead

02:50 PM PDT on Friday, July 18, 2008

By JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise

Video: Man hit by train near Grand Terrace

San Bernardino County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating a man's body that was hit by a train early this morning in Grand Terrace.

Police do not know if the man was alive or dead when he was hit by the train shortly after midnight at Main Street and Transit Avenue. Authorities are investigating whether the death was accidental or if it could be a homicide, sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said.

While nothing yet points to a homicide, deputies and railroad officials shut down the tracks and treated the area as a crime scene.

The conductor of a BNSF freight train told Riverside County authorities the train hit the man near the Riverside County line, Wiltshire said.

"The train conductor thought he saw a man on the tracks but he couldn't stop in time," Wiltshire said. 'We're not sure why he was on the tracks. Our homicide detectives are out there because you can never go back and reconstruct a crime scene. We don't know if this was a transient or a homicide."

The investigation completely shut down railway traffic, including the Metrolink commuter line that runs from San Bernardino, through Orange County, to Oceanside.

The closure "completely disrupted" the 803 and 805 trains that run from San Bernardino to Orange County and caused extreme delays to the 807 train.

One track on the Inland Empire-Orange County rail line was reopened shortly before 8 a.m. after railroad officials removed a long piece of the snaking freight train blocking tracks, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said. All lines are expected to be open by this afternoon's commute, Tyrell added.

Once rail traffic was reopened, trains were instructed to reduce speeds and take precautions while traveling through the scene.

"This was a long slog for those customers," Tyrrell said. "I know we're all in a hurry this morning but this was a homicide investigation and if this was one of our loved ones we wouldn't want (investigators) rushing through it."

A sheriff's K-9 unit and scientific investigators combed the scene where the freight train was stopped this morning. The man has not been identified.

This marks the fourth person hit by a train in the Riverside area in the past two months and the second person killed this week.

On Monday, a bicyclist was hit by a Metrolink train in Riverside at the Merrill Avenue crossing near Riverside Plaza.

On June 30, 16-year-old Alyssa McCroskey was killed by a train in Riverside. Authorities later ruled that death a suicide.

Traci Lynn McKnight was killed June 2when she crashed her car into a passing train at Spruce Avenue near UC Riverside. That death is still under investigation.

Reach John Asbury at 951-763-3451 or jasbury@PE.com