We need louder horns! Seriously, let's crank it up a few notches.

For all those yelling for quieter toots, you have blood on your hands.

The SF Chronicle is reporting that this is a likely suicide. Let's not turn this tragedy into a weapon for people's views on the horns, high speed trains, elevated tracks, etc.

Got to agree with USA. What else could the words from this article "who apparently meant to be hit by the train" mean but suicide. Sad that these tracks have become such a draw for troubled souls.

Are you serious? You have got to be deaf to not hear those trains. Maybe we should give caltrain big flashing lights! Oh wait but then deaf and blind people won't be able to tell if it's coming.

No amount of horns would have pursuaded this woman to step aside. She was intent on killing herself by stepping in front of the train, and that is true for all recent pedestrian deaths by CalTrain. It's a tragedy, but if someone is intent on suicide, they will eventually be successful, horns or no horns.

Im offended by the callous points of view expressed in these posts. Stupidly some citizens of mountain view consider the poor souls suiciding on the tracks to be unavoidable.

That is plain and simply ignorance. Suicide is preventable and efforts should be made to help those ill individual avert this drastic act. That is if we only had a heart.

To Callousness: You obviously live in a plastic bubble that is sugar coated with die-hard prevention. I have had a close friend commit suicide and there was NOTHING anyone could've done as this friend kept the suicide intent darkly buried inside their soul. Yes, the world should be a better, more caring place. But how many times does anyone you meet on the street even look at you and say "hello?" A lot of people have heart, just look up and take notice!

Please, let's stop calling our fellow citizens callous or stupid when they post something we disagree with. Anyone who posts comments here at least cares about the community. Martine, I lost a cousin to suicide and wondered for years if I should have been alerted and could have stopped him, so you have my sympathy. "Callousness," I hope you realize that it's not a lack of "heart", it's not knowing who will commit suicide or how to help these people.

I agree with "Let's cool it." I was a passenger on train 276 when the fatality occurred. It was between San Antonio and the Mountain View station, on a part of the track that no pedestrians should have been on. According to the conductor, this woman was a "trespasser."
It was obvious to me and the other passengers that this was no accident. There are signs posted, the area is fenced off, and the track is straight with excellent visibility in both directions. The horns are loud enough. I know, because I live a mile from the tracks, and I hear the trains very clearly.
After I got off the train, I then called my fiance, because we had had a fight, and we worked out our issues and made up. This tragedy is a reminder to all of us that life is too short to be unkind or unforgiving. This is a wake-up call to make the most of it, and be positive in our interactions with others. You never know how much impact a kind word or gesture can have. Love conquers all.

Jennifer,

Well said and I am so sorry that you and the other passengers had to experience this tragedy up close like that. My daughter who just got her permit was driving me around last night when she took the loop off San Antonio towards Franciscan Glass to head to Target when she came upon the yellow tape, police cars and the white sheet that the police officer was holding up to prevent anyone from seeing how horrible things were. It was very sad. I too agree that life is way to short to make rash decisions based on bad moods and attitudes. If this woman could have just waited 1 more day to think about things maybe it would have changed the outcome. God Bless this woman's family along with all of the folks on the train who had to experience it.

Odd, we've got people saying that the incident occured between the San Antonio and Mountain View stations, and yet, 1) as the article says, it happened _at_ San Antonio station, and 2) when the train finally got me to said station around 10 p.m. on Monday, technicians in clean suits surrounded by police tape were just finishing up cleaning the Soutbound platform.
This is important because, if it happened at the Station, then it was certainly a suicide. You can't wander on the Southbound track at all there; you have to jump down.

Let's cool it: thank you. I do care about this community and preventing these tragedies. My comment was just a response to the first post by someone who thought this was not a suicide. I can't believe I was called "callous and stupid" for that! Kind of says a lot about how people are judged so quickly on so little.

Thank you "Lets Cool It" and others. I'm happy there are so many readers with reasonable, considerate minds who are more interested in dialog than diatribe. I welcome dissenting points of view but only if they are presented in a non-caustic manner. Unfortunately suicide is a complex and multi-dimensional issue. Unfortunately the loud and caustic ones who insist that solutions are simple seem to attract attention to a larger degree than their numbers deserve.

Lastly, calling someone or a group of people stupid is indicative ultimately of excessive self-judgment and a lack of self-esteem.

I was the conductor on that train,this is my eighth such incident. It's getting worse I can tell you.I mean,my reaction to these things.As I write this my hands are trembling. I was given 3 days of "recovery" time, but as I think about going back tommorrow I'm not feeling too well. For me it doesn't start when I have to go back and see the body, but when I hear that horn blowing with just a little more urgency than normal and then every time the engineer applies the emergency brakes. It's not always a fatality, but my reaction is just the same.

You know, I drive on Central Expressway every day from Rengstorff to Palo Alto. I get an eerie feeling and I feel the need to check the tracks to make sure nobody is wandering around waiting to commit suicide. This makes me inattentive at times and I wonder how many other people are on the roads not paying attention because so many crazy people are selfish enough to make their suicides such a dramatic event. Don't they care enough to spare the conductors the trauma of killing them?? What about the innocent passengers?? Sorry, but suicide by train is selfish and disgusting. GET HELP, it's not like there isn't any out there.

Dear Manuel,

How terrible to have to experience that...No one should have to go through that at all, let alone 8 times. I wish there was a way we could stop it. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Now I more deeply appreciate the job you perform every day, despite the hazards that go along with it. You are amazing. Please take care of yourself.

Love,

Jennifer