Man Killed After Being Struck by Metro Gold Line Train in South Pasadena

By Henk Friezer and Ajay Singh

An eastbound Metro Gold Line train struck a man Saturday on the crossing of Monterey Road and Pasadena Avenue, evidently killing him on impact.

The incident occurred around 4:20 p.m., according to witnesses who claimed the man was homeless and appeared confused or disoriented before being hit by the train.

The train operator sounded his horn after seeing the man within a crosswalk that overlies the tracks, but the pedestrian, estimated to be in his late 30s or early 40s, didn’t move away in time, the Los Angeles Times reported Sgt. Sergio Flores of the Sheriff’s Department as saying.

A large number of homeless people take refuge in the wooded area near the railway tracks.

Ambulances and around 20 police cars, including from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, responded to the accident.

Former South Pasadena Councilmember David Margrave, a member of the city's Transportation Commission and a longtime critic of the intersection where the accident occurred, called the crossing "extremely confusing for motorists and pedestrians" and "very unsafe," according to the South Pasadena Review. "This was an example of that, in which a person had to needlessly lose his life.”

Diane Scoville, a retired elementary teacher and former journalist who lives in a condo next to the accident site, told South Pasadena Patch that her neighbors have expressed concern about the safety of the Monterey Road-Pasadena Avenue Metro Gold Line crossing because it is on the route to Arroyo Vista Elementary School.

Passengers on the train were transported further by buses, and the intersection reportedly reopened to traffic around 8:10 p.m.

No other details were immediately available.