UTAH

Cyclist hit and killed by Frontrunner train in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY — Police say a man was hit and killed by a Frontrunner train when he tried to ride his bike across the tracks late Thursday night.

UTA Officials say hundreds of cyclists were part of this group called 999 Ride at 900 South and 600 West just after 11 o’clock. The group waited for a Union Pacific train to pass, then during a short pause between signal lights, they tried to cross the tracks with a Northbound Frontrunner train coming into the station.

Witnesses: Frontrunner sounded horn, lights were flashing

A 23-year-old man did not make it across the tracks in time and he died on the scene.

“The eyewitnesses we have spoken to said they heard the horn sound, he blasted the horn. But he was going about 45 miles per hour and a train that size can’t stop immediately,” said UTA spokesman Carl Arky. “There were several who were trying to get across the tracks. And they made it, most of them made it. Unfortunately, one gentleman did not.”

The victim has not yet been identified.

Arky says you should never try to cross a railroad crossing if the lights are flashing, and always check there isn’t a train.

“The crossing gate or the crossing arm, it does not dictate whether it is safe to go across. It’s the lights flashing — and the lights were flashing — that dictate whether it is safe to go across a railroad crossing,” said Arky.

“We feel for his family, his next of kin, his friends. But we are also grateful that it wasn’t worse. There could have been far more people injured or killed here.”

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