The first incident happened at 5:50 Thursday morning in Santa Clara when a woman was killed on the tracks near the Diridon Station. The second incident happened in San Jose at Auzerais Avenue around 8:30 a.m.
Two fatal incidents in under three hours is something no one could have foreseen. Witnesses say a man in his 30s or 40s, in a black pickup truck, drove around the crossing arms and was struck by a southbound commute train.
Auzerais is a busy thoroughfare. The grade-level tracks have both flashing and audible signals, in addition to crossing arms that were functioning.
The pickup truck was pushed down the tracks and struck a storage shed.
"He was trapped inside the cab of his small black pickup truck. We extracted him and pronounced him dead at about 8:51 this morning. There is an audible signal and Caltrain reps are on scene and just finished testing it about 15 minutes ago to make sure everything was functioning properly," said San Jose Fire Capt. Barry Stallard.
Another fatality occurred just before 6:00 Thursday morning near the Santa Clara Station.
A woman apparently on the tracks was struck and killed by a northbound express train. Trains were delayed in both directions while investigators completed their work.
The names of the two people killed in these separate incidents have not been released.
