Woman killed by Amtrak train identified as Berkeley resident

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 4, 2007

BERKELEY -- A woman who was struck and killed by an Amtrak train over the weekend has been identified as 59-year-old Melinda Jane Morales, of Berkeley, an Alameda County Coroner's Office spokesman said Monday.

Morales was hit by the Amtrak Capital Corridor train No. 747 at 7:25 p.m. Saturday, said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero. Officials don't know why Morales was on the tracks near Gilman Street in Berkeley.

The train was traveling from Sacramento to San Jose at about 79 mph when Morales was hit, Romero said. The 43 passengers on board were delayed for more than two hours after the incident.

No other injuries were reported, Romero said.

This is the second fatality involving an Amtrak train in Berkeley in less than three weeks.

On the morning of Nov. 15, Scott Slaughter, 31, was taking a shortcut on his way to work at Truitt & White lumber store in Berkeley when he was hit by a train. He was talking on a cell phone at the time.

Slaughter got off a bus at the Berkeley Amtrak station and attempted to cross two sets of tracks in order to pass through a hole in the fence on the other side, instead of walking farther north to a crossing at Hearst Street.

Witnesses said Slaughter waited for one train to pass on a first set of tracks but was hit by a second train as he crossed onto the second set of tracks.

In 2006, California had 91 pedestrians killed by trains, the highest of any state in the nation, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.