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A person was killed on the train tracks in Palo Alto just before noon on Tuesday after being struck by a train between California Avenue and San Antonio stations, according to Caltrain.
Caltrain issued an advisory just after noon about a confirmed fatality on the tracks. A southbound train hit the individual at about 11:55 a.m. None of the 52 passengers on the train were injured, according to Caltrain.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office did not release the identity of the individual, but its online database indicates that the person struck was a 16-year-old girl.
The East Meadow Drive grade crossing was closed for about three hours after the collision, according to the Palo Alto Police Department. Personnel from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Transit Police Bureau arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later to investigate.
All trains were stopped at the scene of the incident just after the collision. They were cleared to move through the area at a reduced speed of 10 mph, according to Caltrain. The agency also announced that all trains will board on the southbound platform at the Palo Alto and California Avenue stations until further notice.
Help is available
Any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal can call 988, the mental health crisis hotline, to speak with a crisis counselor. In Santa Clara County, interpretation is available in 200 languages. Spanish speakers can also call 888-628-9454.
People can reach trained counselors at Crisis Text Line by texting RENEW to 741741.
Please remove this image of the trains. This very well is triggering a lot of PTSD and is not respectful to the tragic loss for this family and our community. Thank you.
This is the second suicide at Meadow street within a few weeks. Palo Alto needs to stop playing around and get serious about the grade separation so that the tracks can be fenced off.
Aren’t the cameras installed at the intersections supposed to prevent such occurrences?
Grade separations costing hundreds of millions of dollars each can only stop accidental deaths, which are happily quite rare on the Caltrain line. Sadly, nearly all pedestrian deaths inflicted upon Caltrain crews & riders are not accidental.
Unless the fail-safe-designed and battery-backup-equipped crossing protection equipment suffers an extremely rare malfunction, it’s important to note it is impossible for a vehicle or pedestrian to be hit by a train without first violating laws against trespassing, bypassing activated warning signals & gates, or beginning to drive across tracks before there is enough room to get safely completely cross without stopping. (It is never legal and always negligent and dangerous to stop with any part of a vehicle blocking the tracks.)
As with fully grade-separated (crossing-free) systems (like BART) around the world, intentional pedestrian deaths can and do continue at stations. Already several — including the prior two deaths at Hillsdale & California Avenue stations — of Caltrain’s annual pedestrian deaths occur at stations with no nearby crossings.
Every time this happens, and I have been watching it for a long time, we grieve and make demands. We have had paid guards at crossings. The crossings have been improved with pedestrian safety gates.
To anyone who is reading this, please know that you are loved by your family and friends even if you don’t think they show it. Please reach out for help. There is help available. This is a plea to anyone who is feeling down, feeling that they have no hope, feeling that they can’t live with the pain, feeling that their life will go on in pain forever. Please reach out for help from family, from friends, from school, from coworkers, from strangers, from anyone you meet, from health professionals, from helplines, from 988. Please don’t hesitate. Things can get better, just ask for help.
In grief and pain for this family. The hourly paid rail crossing guards have been gone for a long time in Palo Alto. This should be deemed an essential job for this town. Ironically, Palo Alto held thier scheduled rail committee meeting at 2pm yesterday just two hours after this tragedy. Was a rail design chosen? I doubt it. What does Council Member Burt say: We can’t be impulsive in making a decision? Really? after 10 years of dickering and many accidents and lives lost at our crossings. The loss of one of our own young in pain and suffering. I am grieving for this family and our community. Get the essential rail crossing guards back now.
We should think seriously about getting school buses back.
School buses? How will that help? This was probably an intentional suicide. They will jump onto the freeway or otherwise. While this is sad and tragic, there are many ways to do it. People need to stay strong and vote for better leadership before we turn into a NYC.
@realitycheck Physical barriers absolutely do prevent suicides, as well as accidents.
@Jane: yes, but as long as tracks remain easily and freely accessible at stations, Caltrain will continue to suffer suicides just as completely closed (grade-separated) rail systems like BART do. A significant fraction of Caltrain suicides have long occurred at stations … and when the (literally) billions are spent to fully grade separate the remaining 40 (70 if you count SJ-Gilroy) grade crossings, then all Caltrain suicides will shift to being at stations (or just occur elsewhere by other means).
We must not be deluded into thinking the problem is with crossings or the trains, and that spending billions on crossing elimination will solve it when it’s a far more difficult one of mental health and suicide.