INDUSTRY, Calif. - A Union Pacific employee died Saturday when his pickup truck was struck by a Metrolink commuter train, authorities told the San Gabriel Valley Times.
The crash occurred about 9:30 a.m. near the intersection of Valley Boulevard and Temple Avenue, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Pete Cacheiro said.
The Union Pacific employee was initially described only as a 56-year-old man pending notification of his family, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Investigator Jim Blacklock said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene despite rescuers' efforts to perform CPR, officials said. Three passengers on the commuter train suffered minor injuries.
The investigation was in its early stages Saturday afternoon, but Cacheiro said it appeared that the crossing signals and arms were working properly.
"It seems like he was trying to get around the train crossing," Cacheiro said.
"The train pushed the truck approximately 300 yards before it came to a stop," he added.
The force of the impact was extreme, and the truck driver apparently died on impact, Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Marcos Espiritu said.
"The truck was literally totalled," he said.
Espiritu said two people from the commuter train were hospitalized after complaining of neck and back pain, and a third was hospitalized after reporting feeling ill.
Union Pacific spokesman Aaron Hunt said officials were still working to determine what the pickup truck was doing on the tracks when it was struck. He did not know if the employee was stopped and working on the tracks or merely passing through.
"We don't know a lot about the circumstances," he said. "We're all just really saddened by it. We're investigating exactly what happened."
A set of Union Pacific tracks runs parallel to the Metrolink tracks, Hunt added.
The Union Pacific truck was equipped only with standard tires and not with specialized wheels to allow it to run on the railroad tracks, Metrolink spokeswoman Angie Starr said.
Train 354, which departed Los Angeles at 9 a.m. en route to San Bernardino, had 138 passengers, two engineers and two sheriff's deputies on board, Starr said. The engineers were subcontracted through the company Connex Railroad.
The passengers were delayed for several hours until a Metrolink bus picked them up and took them to their final destination.
Starr added that the train did not derail in the crash.
(This item appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Times March 22, 2010.)
