Boy, 15, apparently commits suicide by allowing Metrolink train to strike him

COVINA, Calif. (AP) A 15-year-old boy who witnesses said deliberately stayed on rail road tracks was struck and killed by a commuter train Wednesday, the fifth fatal Metrolink incident this year.

The name of the boy, who was a 10th grader at Charter Oak High School, was withheld by authorities. Information from witnesses and a note found in a backpack near the boy indicated that he committed suicide by standing on the tracks until he was struck about 7:50 a.m. by the approaching train, said Sgt. John Zumwalt of the Covina Police Department.

The westbound Metrolink 311 train was traveling from San Bernardino to Los Angeles when it hit the boy, Metrolink spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said.

It was the latest in a series of deadly Metrolink crashes in the Southern California region.

One person was killed and two were injured Friday when a train slammed into a pickup truck in San Fernando.

On Jan. 30, a 37-year-old man was crushed to death by an oncoming train in the City of Industry, in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.

On Jan. 27, a 52-year-old man who left a will and suicide note at his home drove into the path of a train in Glendale and was killed.

And earlier in January, a man was killed in Burbank when a train struck the truck he was driving. The crash derailed the train and injured dozens of passengers, including an elderly woman who died later of injuries possibly suffered in the crash.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)