BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Half of the deaths on the Caltrain tracks last year were in Palo Alto, according to coroner data.
The people who died ranged in age from 15 to 67, and their average age was 40 years old.
The cases were all closed as suicides, except for a homeless man who was hit in San Jose and died on his way to the hospital on Jan. 31, 2025.
Palo Alto saw five of the 10 Caltrain deaths last year, and another death on Feb. 3, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner said.
Menlo Park had two deaths last year, according to the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office.
Morgan Hill and Sunnyvale each had one death.
Jan. 31 — Jose Diego Canderos, 48
Feb. 8 — Christopher Eamonn Burgraff, 21, of Menlo Park
March 4 — Ash He, 15, of Palo Alto
June 24 — Mark Kousnetz, 66, of Palo Alto
July 17 — Sukumar Ramanathan, 63, of Menlo Park
Aug. 5 — Mahsa Farsad, 39, of Sunnyvale
Aug. 9 — Emily Fiedel, 17, of Palo Alto
Aug. 21 — James Liam Lin-Sperry, 20, of Palo Alto
Sept. 10 — Kenneth Jay Evan, 67, of Morgan Hill
Nov. 6 — Jeremiah Chapman, 47, of Palo Alto
Related story: Caltrain decides to keep deaths secret
No more kicking the can… Caltrain should be responsible for their operations, which it only looks like it’s only the cities. I believe the a trench design, below grade level needs to be done throughout the peninsula. Furthermore, for the amount of bail out money from the state Caltrain gets the state should also be responsible for a citizen lives.
Do you have the faintest idea how much this would cost? The bail out money to run the system wouldn’t begin to cover trenching the tracks in Palo Alto, much less for the entire peninsula.
San Mateo just spent $580 million at express lanes on Highway 101 with that cover some of it?
Rest in peace to all of the souls whose names appear in this article.
Less Talk, what does trenching the tracks have to do with the issue of people committing suicide by train?
As you probably know, trenching (or undergrounding) will likely do little or nothing to prevent future train suicides. Train suicides will likely continue regardless of where tracks are located. But trenching would sure free up the hitherto untapped real estate currently known and used as train tracks.
Perhaps you are aware that corrupt local government officials and their friends among developers, realtors, and global REITs might use train suicides as a cover to use should they free up that land for the benefit of their own pocketbooks.
Privatize the profits and socialize the costs, eh?
More socioeconomic stratification and police repression isn’t the win that the powerful think it is.
Here’s a myth: “Train suicides will likely continue regardless of where tracks are located.”
I don’t see any deaths in Burlingame, where the train runs in front of the high school.
Is it possible the deaths have something to do with the academics in the schools? Instead of blaming the train, let’s look at the schools.
Sadly, given that the deaths are happening at all the crossings, I don’t see the logic in just closing Churchill. Perhaps it is best to stick with the security guards and other electronic mechanisms. This in addition to making health services more available and known.