2 KILLED, RIG HIT ON METROLINK TRAIN LINES.

Byline: Mary Beth Alexander Daily News Staff Writer

Two people were struck and killed by Metrolink trains Monday in what authorities said were suicides, and a third incident involving the commuter train left a tractor- trailer in pieces but caused no injuries, officials said.

The string of incidents began at 8:45 a.m., when a Metrolink headed from Los Angeles to Burbank struck a woman sitting on the tracks near the Doran Street crossing in Glendale, said Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo.

At a crossing one block north at Bekins Way in Glendale, a tractor-trailer rig was struck by a train en route to Moorpark from Los Angeles about 1:45 p.m., Hidalgo said. The rig's driver had tried to beat the train at the crossing, but the back end of the truck was sitting on the tracks when the locomotive arrived, he said. The driver wasn't hurt, nor were the train's passengers or crew members.

A train headed from Chatsworth to Los Angeles struck a man on the tracks just north of the Burbank station on Front Street about 5:05 p.m., Hidalgo said. The engineer was inching out of the station when he saw the man lay his head on the tracks. But he did not have time to stop, Hidalgo said.

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Photo

Photo: Wreckage from a tractor-trailer rig lies next to a Metrolink track.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News