Atherton officials’ insistence on keeping train service at the town’s historic station — along with police officers’ decision to use Tasers, not guns — may have saved a woman’s life.
A 45-year-old Menlo Park woman drove her car to the Atherton station and stepped in front of a train on Sunday, Aug. 19, at around 7:40 p.m., two witnesses told Atherton police. If it had been a weekday, when trains zoom through the station without stopping, she might have succeeded in committing suicide.
“She didn’t realize that trains stop here on the weekend,” said Sgt. Tim Lynch of the Atherton Police Department. “(The engineer) applied the emergency brake, and because the train was slowing at the station, it was able to stop and not strike her.”
Atherton’s train station lost weekday Caltrain service in 2005, but heavy lobbying by town officials managed to preserve weekend train service.
Two witnesses who were waiting for the train alerted officers at the nearby police station to the woman’s suicide attempt, Sgt. Lynch said.
Officers located her walking down the tracks just south of the train station, near the town’s building department trailer. The woman had her hands behind her back and told the officers that she had a weapon, so they drew their guns to protect themselves, Sgt. Lynch said.
“She claimed to have a gun, and said ‘Shoot me,'” Sgt. Lynch said.
The officers opted to use their Tasers instead, stunning the woman long enough to handcuff her and keep her under control until paramedics arrived, he said. She did not have a gun, he said.
Tasers fire barbs at subjects, delivering a mild electrical charge that affects the nervous system, temporarily disabling them, Sgt. Lynch said.
The woman was taken to the hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation, Sgt. Lynch said. Atherton police are treating the incident as a medical call, and will not be releasing further information, he said.
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