17-year-old Samantha Aparicio was hit and killed by a freight train along L Street near the Marina, apparently after leaving a nearby high school. A young man was killed in the exact same spot in April and it turns out that the two victims were in the same circle of friends.
For the second time in less than three months, a young person has been killed by a train in Antioch near the L Street crossing. Witnesses saw a freight train stop suddenly and went to see if someone was hit. "The right side of the train over there, you could see the body of a woman," one man said.
The coroner identified the victim as 17-year-old Samantha Aparicio. Her friends say they also knew her as Samantha Gomez. She was struck by a westbound Burlington Northern freight train bound for Oakland. Friends say the teen was a student at nearby Prospects High School. "She was a cool person. Everybody used to hang out with her," William Millard told ABC7 News. "Everybody liked her because she was always happy.
Millard is a friend of Aparicio and the brother of Jesse Morris, a 20-year-old struck by an Amtrak train while riding his bike near the L Street crossing on April 4. Morris' parents came out Wednesday when they heard that one of their son's friends was also killed in the same area. "Right after my son got hit we came down her and watched these trains, and they were going real fast," Morris' mother said.
The California Public Utilities Commission and Burlington Northern are investigating this latest incident. They did not comment, but those who live and work near the tracks say something needs to be done to make them safer. "There's a police station right there. You'd think there was something else they could do. Something else," neighbor Sherry Cabang said.
Besides being friends, Aparicio and Marin may have one other thing in common. Martin was wearing headphones when he was fatally struck back in April. Investigators are now looking into whether Aparcicio was listening to an iPod or other device when she was struck.
