TRAIN KILLS CALIFORNIA CITY MAN COLLISION MARKS SECOND FATAL PEDESTRIAN INCIDENT IN TWO DAYS.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A California City man was killed Friday when he ran in front of a fast-moving freight train at a Lancaster intersection.

In the second fatal North Los Angeles County train collision involving pedestrians in two days, deputies were investigating whether the man was trying to kill himself or just get across the intersection before the mile-long train blocked it.

"People said it looked like he was running to beat the train," sheriff's Sgt. Steve Vaughan said.

The man's name was not immediately released. Sheriff's homicide detectives were called in to investigate.

Avenue J was closed to traffic across the tracks for more than three hours, although Metrolink trains were able to get by on a parallel track.

Crossing arms were down, signals were blinking and the train's air horn was blowing when the man ran along Avenue J's northern sidewalk and onto the tracks about 10:50 a.m., officials said.

The man was knocked more than 100 feet into a ditch on the far side of the street, where he was pronounced dead.

"The crew was pretty well shaken up," Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.

The incident occurred on a track section where freight trains normally travel about 50 mph, and it took the train about a half-mile to stop.

The train was hauling freight from Portland to Phoenix, Davis said.

A digital recorder aboard the train will provide information on its speed, braking and other data about the crash, Davis said.

On Thursday, a young couple was hit and killed by a Metrolink passenger train as they walked on the tracks in Newhall. Names were still not released Friday for the couple, described as in their late teens or early 20s.

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Sheriff's deputies investigate the scene of a train collision Friday in Lancaster. A California City man was hit and killed by a freight train at Avenue J and Sierra Highway. It is the second such incident in two days; on Thursday, a young couple died while walking along the tracks in Newhall.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer