During the weekend, the Riverside County Coroner’s Office identified the man killed by a train in Indio, California. The accident report on Saturday, August 1st, revealed the victim’s name as Ernie Hernandez Jr., 28.
The man died after a Southern Pacific train struck him at about 12:05 a.m. Saturday, on the railroad track north of Indio Boulevard east of Monroe Street. The coroner’s office said that Hernandez suffered extensive injuries, and emergency responders pronounced him dead minutes after the occurrence at 12:27 a.m.
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The investigation into the accident is ongoing. The Union Pacific Police Department is heading it, with assistance from the Indio Police.
Train accidents are not as common as other forms of transportation, but when they occur, they result in severe and fatal injuries. Every 100 minutes, at least one person dies from train-related collisions, and nearly 1000 people get killed yearly. More than half of these types of accidents occur at unprotected railroad crossings.
More than 80% of crossings lack adequate warning devices such as lights and gates. Occupants of vehicles that collide with a train are 40 times more likely to die than if they collide with another automobile of comparable size. Common causes of train-related accidents are negligence on the part of pedestrians, drivers, or railway companies, and human error.
The latter covers fatigued conductors operating the train unsafely, or an operator forgetting to turn on the signal light. Other causes are mechanical failure, speedy trains, defective tracks, derailment, or suicides.
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The articles published contain sensitive subject matter that may be hard to read by some. We understand that losing a loved one is hard and devastating. Safety Watch’s decision to share the stories is to help others who may be facing the same situations by providing appropriate resources to the general public.