‘Asian male juvenile’ is victim of train collision

Another possible suicide — the second Caltrain-related death in two days — stopped trains in Palo Alto at about 8:30 a.m. today after a northbound commute train hit a person on the tracks at East Meadow Drive. Investigators said the victim was an Asian male juvenile who was on the tracks between lowered crossing gates.

“We’ve got another suicide,” a train-intercom announcement believed to be from a train engineer informed conductors, who passed the word to passengers.

The incident occurred at the East Meadow Drive crossing. The commute train immediately applied full brakes and stopped, a passenger reported.

Palo Alto fire dispatch listed the incident as a “medical emergency,” but no other details were immediately available. Detective Victor Lopez of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Transit Police Bureau said the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office investigator was delayed in a traffic jam, so the partial identificatioun is unconfirmed.

By 9 a.m. southbound trains were allowed through, followed by allowing northbound and southbound trains to trade off on a single track. Passengers of the train that hit the youth were kept on board — causing some consternation among passengers trying to make airport connections, one passenger reported.

Late Monday morning, a still-unidentified woman walked onto the southbound tracks just north of the Mountain View border and sat down facing an oncoming train, which hit her at about 40 miles per hour. ( See separate story.)

Today’s death is the second for 2009. Last year there were 16 Caltrain-related deaths, 13 of them classed as suicides.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

— Palo Alto Weekly staff