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SUNSET — A pedestrian was struck and killed late Wednesday after crossing into the path of a FrontRunner train.
Robbie Lucero, 22, was hit near 2300 North around 10 p.m., Sunset Police Chief Ken Eborn said. There were no vehicle or pedestrian crossing zones where Lucero was struck.
"Anybody who would be in that area would technically be trespassing and would really have no reason to be there," Eborn said. "There was no legitimate reason for him to be where he was."
Lucero had been in a park adjacent to where he was killed. The man, who had been drinking, got into an argument with his girlfriend and "took off walking," said Sunset Police Sgt. Bruce Arbogast.
"Whether this was intentional or unintentional, we don't know," Arbogast said.
Lucero was homeless at the time he was killed, but had family in the Roy and Ogden areas, police said.
The death was the third FrontRunner-related fatality in the area since July. Charles Dubose, 52, of West Haven was killed Aug. 9 when his truck was hit by a train. An unidentified woman died July 23 after she apparently ran in front of the train, days after another woman's body was found near the tracks in the same area.
"I just think there needs to be education that trains are deadly," Eborn said. "There's no reason to be on their tracks at all. They're not shortcuts. Those trains move at a speed that you or I can't really comprehend. It's just not a place to be."
Utah Transit Authority spokesman Gerry Carpenter said the train would have been between stations in Roy and Clearfield and accelerating to speeds at or near the maximum of 79 mph.
"The trains were moving very quickly at the time of the incident," Carpenter said.
Due to the darkness and the speed of the train, he said the train operator likely didn't see the man until impact. Per UTA policy, the operator was placed on administrative leave and given drug and alcohol tests to insure there was no impairment.
"There was no way for the operator to anticipate it," Carpenter said, noting that it was the train operator who reported the incident.
The trains run on "continuously welded rail" that help them to be "very quiet" and are difficult to hear coming.
"The sound takes time to catch up with them, so it's important to stay off the railroad," Carpenter said. "The safest place to be around trains is away from the trains."
The victim has not yet been identified nor have investigators been able to determine what the man was doing on the tracks.
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