A man was killed after being struck by a MetroLink train in downtown St. Louis Friday evening, July 1, 2016.
The accident occurred near the MetroLink Union Station location at 20th Street and Clark Avenue around 7:30 p.m. According to Police, the deceased has been identified as James King, 55.
At the time of the accident, Police believed the man was homeless and had been sitting or sleeping too close to the tracks. Police had said there was some evidence suggesting the man had been living near the site. However, the police have since released an address for the man at a residence in Festus, Missouri.
Just before the accident, the train operator was turning a curve and had little time to react and to stop once he saw the victim.
Train service between Grand and Stadium stations were temporarily shut down. Passengers were taken by shuttle buses to the next stop. According to Metro, Blue Line MetroLink trains that Friday night were only operating between the Shrewsbury-Lansdowne Interstate-44 and Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Stations.
A previous MetroLink fatality occurred in May 2014 when a MetroLink train struck and killed a woman pedestrian who was crossing near the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
St. Louis County police had said at the time that an eastbound train struck Veronica Muo, 27, an UMSL student from University City, after she slipped while crossing the tracks at around 5:30 p.m.
A Metro spokeswoman said that Muo’s death was only the second time a
pedestrian had been struck at the site since it was built in 1993. In 2006, a train struck and injured a woman who had attempted suicide at the
crossing.
The train that struck Muo is reported to have been traveling at about 25 miles per hour as it approached the UMSL North station, just east of the crossing. There is no signal or gate at the crossing, or at any of Metro’s other pedestrian crossings.
The spokesperson stated that it was industry standard to have only signals at street grade crossings, adding that if they did have gates at pedestrian access crossings, people would just walk around them.
The spokesperson said such accidents are rare and that Metro had achieved high marks from the National Transportation Security Administration for passenger safety and security.
