Officials Identify Man Killed by Train
- Share via
PACOIMA — Authorities Tuesday identified a man who was killed by a Metrolink train when he walked onto railroad tracks in Pacoima.
Epifanio Ascencio Lopez, 31, of Pacoima was killed instantly in the accident near San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard about 6:10 a.m. Monday, the County Coroner’s office said.
Lopez, the third fatality since the commuter rail service began two months ago, walked around a lowered railroad crossing barrier despite warning bells and flashing red lights, police said. Witnesses told investigators that he strode straight into the path of a train traveling 78 m.p.h.
Two witnesses told police they saw Lopez carrying a beer bottle before the accident. An autopsy is scheduled today to determine whether alcohol or drugs played a role in the accident, coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
