Authorities at the scene of a fatal train strike Monday in Berkeley. Credit: Staci Prado/BeFree Photography by Staci
A man was killed Monday when a Union Pacific train struck him near Hearst Avenue.
Berkeley police received a call that a train had hit someone near the University Avenue overpass shortly before 11:40 a.m., according to a department spokesperson. When officers arrived at the tracks, they found the dead man and notified the Union Pacific Police Department.
The man had been “trespassing on the train tracks,” Jill Micek, a Union Pacific spokesperson, said in an email.
“The train crew was not hurt, but witnessed the incident and is being offered support,” Micek wrote.
The man had not been identified as of Tuesday morning, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office’s Coroner’s Bureau.
Trespassing in railroad rights of way “is the leading cause of rail-related deaths” nationwide, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
An Amtrak train fatally struck another man last month just four blocks away, near the Bancroft Way crossing.
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Alex N. Gecan joined Berkeleyside in 2023 as a senior reporter covering public safety. He has covered criminal justice, courts and breaking and local news for The Middletown Press, Stamford Advocate and…
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