more articles like this

Train vs Pedestrian
updated: Feb 03, 2013, 4:13 PM

Train vs Pedestrian: 100 State Street, Fire Medics SBPD responding.

A local man is dead after he was struck and killed by a train in Santa Barbara. (02/04/13)

303

add

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

ROGER DODGER	2013-02-03 04:16 PM
Pedestrian is 1144, dead..
COMMENT 370525	2013-02-03 04:22 PM
The train couldn't have been going that fast because it's very close to the Amtrak station. Wonder what the pedestrian was thinking or doing?
ROGER DODGER	2013-02-03 04:30 PM
CSI at Anacapa and Mason.. Don't know what thats about 210 Supervisor on scene.
DANOO7	2013-02-03 04:39 PM
525, In May of 2010 I happened upon a similar accident at the same location. This is not unusual.
COMMENT 370532P	2013-02-03 05:09 PM
I sure wish Amtrak and UP engines were equipped with a sound ( other than the horn sound) which could alert folks by the tracks in such an alarming way...or by other means... to signal that a train is approaching. Should Amtrak or Union Pacific sponsor a safety alert innovation contest? Yes, maybe the drunks don't hear..but that sweet gal who lost her life by the tracks at Butterfly Beach recently, might still be alive if there were such a system. Game on you enterprising problem solvers!!!!
COMMENT 370534	2013-02-03 05:20 PM
532P - perhaps we could instill common sense into our youth instead of trying to idiot proof everything? They're train tracks. There are trains on them. Trains make plenty of noise already. There are traffic control lights, sounds, and guards at train track crossings. Did I mention that trains are endemic to train tracks? We don't need any more noise pollution.
COMMENT 370537	2013-02-03 05:25 PM
It is pretty hard NOT to hear the horn on a train. Usually the accident is not because the train is too quiet. I mourn the loss.
COMMENT 370538P	2013-02-03 05:27 PM
If as many people died from shark attacks off the beach, you would think people would avoid the beach. But for some reason people continue to walk on the tracks.
COMMENT 370539	2013-02-03 05:29 PM
Doesn't the train pull in/depart the Amtrak station at around 5 mph?
COMMENT 370540	2013-02-03 05:37 PM
who says it was an AmTrack train...Freight trains pass through town too..
COMMENT 370541	2013-02-03 05:38 PM
I was riding by just as it happened and the guy was under the front left wheel, and pretty mangled. No police or EMT's yet-they got there fast. I talked to a kid who watched it happen and he said that the guy who got hit actually dove in front of the train. I specifically asked him if he meant that the guy wanted to get run over and he said yes, that is exactly what it looked like. He had pictures of the immediate aftermath on his phone. The poor train driver was ashen. I felt terrible for him.
ROGER DODGER	2013-02-03 05:43 PM
Engine one responding code 2 for a wash down 100 State street.
COMMENT 370543	2013-02-03 05:45 PM
Actually the train is making good speed when it crosses State St.---Picked up some friends yesterday and was suprised how fast it was moving even at the loading dock. Friends said PA system on board warns about standing as abrupt stop will be made at station.
COMMENT 370546	2013-02-03 05:50 PM
It seems like a good idea to instill common sense in people so they don't step in front of moving trains. But then the city government and organizations like COAST and SBCAN don't insist on pedestrian common sense when someone steps in front of a moving car. Instead they blame the motorist and insist on implementing foolish "traffic calming" schemes that never work. Now those people are blaming the train because the train's horn is not loud enough.
COMMENT 370547	2013-02-03 05:53 PM
534 is right, in my eyes. Train tracks exist to move trains---very large, heavy, moving objects. Trains have been around in these parts longer than all of us have been alive. Regardless of whether or not this was an accident the outcome is still tragic. I wish peace to all of the people involved. i hope that the person who took the pictures has the wherewithal to not publish them out of sheer respect.
ROGER DODGER	2013-02-03 05:55 PM
I don't think Edhat would print them.
COMMENT 370562	2013-02-03 07:51 PM
Its sad but if someone wants to kill themselves there is not much we can do about it.
COMMENT 370572	2013-02-03 08:53 PM
As of this evening it is being reported as a suicide.
D8VANILLA	2013-02-03 09:25 PM
It was reported that the guy was 63yrs old and they are fairly certain it was suicide. Usually, after someone gets hit by a train, the conductor's will blast their horn a lot more when going thru the city.
COMMENT 370575P	2013-02-03 09:33 PM
I, too, have never understood why people walk on and drive over the tracks. If I can hear the darn train coming thru with it's horn blowing up on Foothills by LaCumbre why can't they? I have been told that it hard to tell how fast they are really moving, but if I see one within my sight I stay put where I am until it passes. Now I am sure I will get blasted by those who don't, and get upset, but then again I am still here.
UPONTHEHILL	2013-02-04 08:03 AM
How very sad.
MICHELE	2013-02-04 11:51 AM
So terribly sad. Every time I hear the train horns, I cringe in fear that someone is getting hit. Just wondering if trains sound their horns only at someone or something on the tracks, or if they also honk for other reasons, like at intersections in general.
COMMENT 370693	2013-02-04 01:25 PM
MICHELE, if I remember correctly they sound the horn any time there is a road crossing the tracks
COMMENT 370698	2013-02-04 01:45 PM
Wish they would put the train in a tunnel under the freeway, as long as they were adding a third lane.
AUNTIE S.	2013-02-04 02:22 PM
I'm reading this on Monday, after I read the News-Press article, so it's pretty obvious that this was a suicide. Poor man - someone must be very desperate not only to commit suicide but to do it this way.
ROGER DODGER	2013-02-04 02:46 PM
The guy wanted to die and he wanted to go fast. It's too bad he choose to end his life in this way and make other people victims. He could have had all kinds of heavy stuff going on in his head, he coulda been ill.. Dog Bless him..
COMMENT 370942	2013-02-05 09:20 AM
I wish suicides would go quietly where no one is around to see them or to pick up their mess. This public display of suicide is not forgivable.
COMMENT 370968	2013-02-05 10:05 AM
You have to admit this guy chose to make a spectacle out of his suicide. The train dragged his body right up to the State Street crossing, where hundreds of people and some children got to see it, not to mention the poor train driver. I don't judge this person for killing himself, but I think the way he did it wasn't OK. So 946, I have to wonder how you would feel if this guy dove under your car, near your home with your family watching. That's what I thought....it's not easy to forgive.
SHAKEY	2013-02-05 02:26 PM
Yea especally if you just got done eating strawberry shortcake...

48% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.

*** 5 comments were deleted from this thread by the Edhat Board Nanny for violating Edhat Comments Board policy. Click Here to see them.

Comments on this thread are only open to Community Members.

# # # #