A Caltrain struck and killed a person at 8:43 tonight (April 16) at the Churchill Avenue crossing in Palo Alto, a spokesman for the railroad said.
The person who died hasn’t been identified publicly. It’s also too early to say if the pedestrian died intentionally or accidentally.
The pedestrian was struck by train #678, which was headed southbound, according to Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman.
He said this was Caltrain’s second fatality of the year.
There were approximately 46 passengers onboard at the time. No other injuries were reported.
Gee, didn’t the City spend over 1 million dollars on sensors and cameras to stop deaths like this? The City told the parents who were guarding the crossings to go home, the technology would take care of things? Got to wonder what the City Manager’s excuse is going to be this time.
Sadly, unless all street crossings are eliminated (costing well over $100m each), and the tracks are completely and securely fenced (more millions), and all station platforms are fitted with very costly automated “platform screen doors” (such as airport people movers use), it is impossible to stop a suicidal person from quickly moving from a normal position of safety to stepping into the path of an oncoming train.