A woman was killed and a man was injured after police say two joggers attempted to cross railroad tracks in Santa Fe Springs while the crossing gates were already down.
The woman was later identified as 34-year-old Graciela Vargas. She was pronounced dead at the scene Thursday morning. The man who was with her suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, according to KTLA.
Whittier Police, which provides police services to Santa Fe Springs, responded at about 8:30 a.m. Aug. 27 to Lakeland Road between Bloomfield Avenue and Shoemaker Avenue. Police initially described the call as a collision involving a train and a pedestrian.
The train was an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. CBS Los Angeles aerial footage showed the passenger train stopped near the crossing as the investigation continued.
The Gates Were Down
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Whittier Police spokesperson Emily Armstrong told KTLA that the railroad crossing gate arms were down when the two joggers attempted to cross the tracks.
That detail narrows the circumstances considerably. Police have not described the pair as running along the railroad tracks before the collision. They were attempting to cross them.
Police also have not publicly explained why the pair continued toward the tracks with the gates lowered.
California law specifically addresses pedestrians at railroad crossings. Vehicle Code Section 22451 requires a pedestrian to stop when a visible signal warns of an approaching train and says a pedestrian may not proceed through, around, or under a crossing gate while it is closed.
Nothing released by police establishes that headphones or earbuds played any role in the collision.
Not A Metrolink Train
Some early reports identified the train as Metrolink, but the train involved was Amtrak service.
Metrolink’s own service advisory identified the train as Amtrak 765 and warned riders that tracks had been closed between Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs and Commerce because the Amtrak train had struck a person on the tracks. The closure affected Metrolink’s Orange County and 91/Perris Valley lines, which use the same rail corridor.
Amtrak’s current Pacific Surfliner timetable lists Train 765 as Pacific Surfliner service.
That distinction does not change what happened at the crossing, but it does explain why a collision involving an Amtrak train also caused Metrolink disruptions.
An Active Crossing
The Lakeland Road location is an established public railroad crossing, not an informal footpath across the tracks.
Federal Railroad Administration records classify the Lakeland Road crossing in Santa Fe Springs as an open, public, at-grade BNSF crossing. In other words, the roadway and railroad meet at the same level.
There are already plans to change part of that arrangement.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s Los Angeles-to-Anaheim plans call for a partial grade separation at Lakeland Road. Under the proposal, high-speed rail and other passenger trains would eventually travel on elevated tracks over the road, while BNSF freight trains would continue crossing Lakeland Road at street level.
For Thursday’s collision, however, the crossing remained at grade and protected by the gate arms police say were already lowered.
Vargas died at the scene. Police said the other jogger’s injuries were not life-threatening.