Posted on 11/28/2018 6:00:55 AM PST by Gamecock
A man hit and killed by an Amtrak train Monday morning in Moorpark had been placing flowers on the tracks for another man fatally struck on Saturday by an Amtrak train, authorities said.
Monday's fatality occurred around 11:33 a.m., when a northbound passenger train from Los Angeles was traveling through the city at about 70 mph, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, which provides police services in the city.
The man, described as a 47-year-old Moorpark resident, was hit near Avenida Colonia and Nogales Avenue and was pronounced dead at the scene. Tracks in the area pass underneath Highway 23 east of the station on High Street.
Witnesses told police the man had been on the tracks placing flowers for 38-year-old Robert Melgoza, who was killed in the same area around 4:40 p.m. Saturday by a northbound Pacific Surfliner passenger train. Witnesses on Monday reportedly advised the man to get off the tracks before the train came through, but he failed to do so in time, sheriff's officials said.
Some 226 passengers and three crew members aboard the train, which was headed to Seattle, were not injured. The tracks were closed in both directions for about two hours and 15 minutes as Moorpark police investigated.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Deputy James Cochran at the Moorpark Police Station at 805-532-2700.
Guy was on the tracks when a train came, was told to get off, didn't do so.
What other information do you need?
Darwin Award. Or suicide by train.
Train victim.
Those evil trains just attacking people. We clearly need common sense train laws.
SoCal ping
Darwin²
Obviously, ban trains!
Probably not too wise to try to take on a train.
In lieu of more flowers, donate to the Human Fund.
Exactly when did this public display of flowers on death sites (not gravesites) begin?
I'll show my age by stating that I do not ever recall this act as a young man. Seemed to start around the mid-1990's. Up till then, this practice was confined to 3rd world countries.
Yours truly,
A curmudgeon.
I’m with you. It started when the Mexicans started flooding in. It’s just another south-of-the-border thing that spread across the country now.
Were these guy deaf, dumb and blind ? How can you not be aware of a frigging train ?
That's what I was wondering.
It's not like trains sneak up on you.
Those trains are tough to avoid. Running on tracks, fenced off, making loud noises and vibrating the earth as it moves stealthily down the road.
George Costanza got in trouble for that. ;)
I don't need to know, but I'm curious to know if they were lovers?
Lost in greif? See post #16.
Never understood how a pedestrian could get hit by a train unless they were trying.....or passed out due to substance abuse.
Many years ago I was walking with my son on the Air Force Academy alongside a set of rail tracks. At one point I turned around nearly jumped out of my shoes, there was a coal train 30 feet behind us moving towards us at about 20 miles an hour. It was almost noiseless.
Curmudgeon,
I remember seeing crosses (not flowers) alongside rural highways where people had died in the 50s. This was in the west, so there might have been a spread of a common Mexican idea. The crosses did serve a purpose in the sense that if you saw a lot of them in a particular place, you might want to slow down.
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