Passenger Trains > Amtk 777 Delay - Trespasser-Suicide in San Clemente (18)

I was on today's northbound Pacific Surfliner, #777, which left San Diego a few minutes after 12 noon today.  Just as it was approaching the San Clemente Pier, a little after 1:00 PM, the train jolted and then went into emergency.  Evidently a person had stepped in front of the train to commit suicide.  There was a beach event underway at the time right by the pier, and it appears there were eyewitnesses at the beach event - at least 2 people ran to nearby Sheriff and Explorers and pointed toward the rear of the train. 

The local sheriff team then placed perimeter yellow "crime scene" tape around the train, and then closer to the nearby street.  And then we waited.  No passengers were allowed off the train, because it is deemed "evidence". The nearest coroner was in Santa Ana, and that person and their team were called - it took maybe 90 minutes to get to the site.  (The unusual rain we had today added to traffic delays on highways).  The sheriff and coroner's team did a detailed inspection of the outside and underside of the train as it slowly pull forward.  Eventually the coroner released the train, and then there was another short wait until the dispatcher gave the go-ahead.  All in all, a delay of about three hours.

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777 has always been a troubled number in railroading... The curse resumes...

Posted from Android

What other rail calamities are associated with 777?

Posted from iPhone

Thank you for the info. I was on that Metrolink 665 train that left Oceanside at 1:20 PM. We made it to CP Songs then reversed to Oceanside where the people who wanted to leave the train could. I stayed with my train set knowing I would get home.
We wentr south to Escondido JCT and sat for two hours. We then became train 667 and left Oceanside again at 5:30 PM. We sat at CP Songs behind two other trains and after Surfliner 580 went south one by one we went north. Being last in line
meant we got a red a Califia Beach and sat for another ten minutes, We finally got going again and met Surfliner 784 at CP Serra then made it to Irvine. We crossed over at CP Tinkham and stopped at Tustin where the San Bernardino two train sets were stopped and switched our passengers to that train who wwere going to stops on the Inland Empire Line. I finally made it home to Santa Ans 5 hours 18 minutes late.

Chris

Good to hear, Chris. 
That incident sure plugged the route for a while. 
When our train got going, between Serra and Capistrano there was a southbound Surfliner and a Metrolink in the siding.  South of Irvine, there was a southbound BNSF freight with autoracks in the siding.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) had a promotion for weekend use of Metrolink at Fullerton that involved travel to the San Clemente Ocean Festival on Saturday. With the rain, lightning, canceled events and the train involved suicide, it didn't turn out like the OCTA would have liked it.

cliff