A man was struck by a train and killed, and another was injured, on the Metro A Line tracks in the unincorporated Firestone community just hours after the line re-opened following an eight-month renovation project, authorities said Sunday.
The fatal collision occurred at 10:40 p.m. Saturday on the tracks near Gage and Converse avenues where two men were apparently trespassing in an area clearly marked “no entry,” according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Ramon Montenegro of the Transit Services Bureau.
One man was pronounced dead at the scene, Montenegro said. The second man managed to jump out of the way and was taken to a hospital with what were believed to be non-life threatening injuries, the spokesman said.
The Metro light rail line, which was previously known as the Blue Line, had been closed for much of the year for a $350 million renovation, and was re-opened and re-dedicated Saturday just hours before the fatal collision. The name was also changed from the Blue Line to the A Line as part of a larger shift from color to letter designations for the expanding light rail system, Metro officials said.
The collision was not believed to be related to the renovations, according to authorities.
A Line riders were shuttled between stations from shortly after 10:40 p.m. Saturday until 1:20 a.m. Sunday morning, Metro spokesman Brian Haaf said.
The cause of the collision remained under investigation.