A 19-year-old woman died yesterday (Sept. 27) after she was hit by a Caltrain in San Mateo, according to the coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office identified the victim as Mariana Reinoso-Barreto of San Mateo. The fatal accident occurred near the Villa Terrace at-grade crossing in San Mateo.
Only six days earlier, Caltrain officials celebrated the start of electric train service.
The coroner’s office hasn’t determined if the death was an accident or a suicide.
This was the 11th death on the Caltrain tracks this year. Between 1992 and 2009, Caltrain averaged 10 deaths a year, according to research by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University.
In May, Caltrain decided to stop reporting deaths that occur on the tracks in the hopes they would diminish. San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus, whose office has the contract to provide police services for the Caltrain line from San Francisco to Gilroy, went along with Caltrain’s censorship decision even though other first-responder agencies, such as police and fire departments, have not.
The news blackout doesn’t appear to be reducing deaths, since this is the 11th fatality on the tracks in 2023, which is higher than the average for an entire year, and it’s only the ninth month of the year.
Passengers report train deaths on social media, and some news outlets, such as the Daily Post, confirm the deaths through other official sources such as fire departments and coroners.
The last Caltrain death was on Sept. 2 when Derrick Miley, 62, was killed when a train was approaching the Redwood City station.
On Aug. 21, a 55-year-old homeless man named Donald Williams died on the tracks in Redwood City.
This girl that died was my best friend and to see her die without telling her how much I cared about her is hard and for other people too that now her LLM️
That crossing is feet away from the LifeMoves homeless shelter. So I wonder if she was one of the poor new immigrants to arrive in our town. Very sad.
What a silly policy! People are going to commit suicide on the tracks regardless of whether Caltrain reports them. It’s one bad decision after another by Caltrain management. Like letting fare evaders ride for free. Time to merge Caltrain with a professional ly managed agency like BART and fire these stupid San Mateo Co. bureaucrats.