A southbound commuter train hit an apparently abandoned van
stalled on the railroad tracks just south of Tennant Avenue Monday
night. No one was injured.
A southbound commuter train hit an apparently abandoned van stalled on the railroad tracks just south of Tennant Avenue Monday night. No one was injured.
Morgan Hill Police Cpl. Troy Hoefling said the blue van was empty and none of the San Martin/Gilroy-bound commuters nor the Caltrain engineer or conductor was hurt.
“There was a little bit of paint transfer on the front of the train,” Hoefling said, “but nobody was injured and the train was not damaged.”
Before the accident occurred at 6:25 pm, police dispatchers received a call reporting a vehicle on the tracks, Hoefling said. The dispatcher heard the train go by – the station is just north of Tennant Avenue –and called Caltrain.
“Yeah, we have a collision,” Hoefling said the dispatcher was told.
The approximately 30 passengers remained on Caltrain 164 while the investigation was under way and the van removed. After the tracks were cleared, the train headed south at 7:20pm to its remaining stops in San Martin and Gilroy.
The train clipped the right rear of the van and pushed it down the tracks where it remained until Community Towing, with great effort, pulled it off the tracks and carted it away. The train stopped about one-quarter mile south of Tennant Avenue.
The van is registered to Fernando Garcia Mendoza of Coyote.
“It looked like somebody was driving on the tracks, stalled and left,” Hoefling said.
Hoefling said there was no indication that it had been a suicide attempt such as the incident on Jan. 26 in Los Angeles when a man planned to commit suicide by train, lost his nerve at the last minute, and left the vehicle on the tracks to cause a huge derailing, 11 deaths and almost 200 injuries.
Besides a beer can, the van had a bed in the back and could have been used as a temporary home. Hoefling said he would be trying to find Mendoza. The van could have been stolen, Hoefling said, because its ignition was “punched.”
“At this point, it is mostly an insurance matter,” he said.
The van was not damaged extensively.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
