A Guadalupe woman was killed on July 24 after her Saturn SUV was hit by an Amtrak passenger train on the 4500 block of West Main Street in Guadalupe.
The car was on the tracks at about 3 p.m. when the train collided with it, causing the vehicle to spin off the tracks and flip onto its side, killing the only occupant, according to Santa Barbara County Fire Captain David Zaniboni. The woman was found dead in her car by American Medical Response, which arrived first to the crash, followed by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, the Guadalupe Fire Department, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Guadalupe Police Chief Gary Hoving said that although the woman’s name and exact age have not yet been released, she was born in 1949 and her only daughter was informed of the crash. While it remains unclear why she drove onto the tracks, Hoving said the arms of the track gates were either fully closed or partially closed when the SUV drove past them.
Hoving said the front of the train suffered almost no damage, only a few paint marks, and none of the train’s passengers were injured. A track inspector was called in to assess whether or not the train’s tracks were damaged, according to Hoving, and crews removed all wreckage from the tracks.
The Guadalupe Police Department is still leading the investigation into the crash with the help of the Sheriff’s Office coroner and California Highway Patrol.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 3, 2017.