Less than a week after a 51-year-old man died there, the Amtrak station in Goleta was the site of another fatality on Wednesday.
Ester Lopez de Reyes, a 65-year-old resident of Goleta, was struck and killed by a northbound Amtrak passenger train as it was slowing to a stop at the Goleta station, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and Goleta police.
Lopez de Reyes stepped in front of the train just before being hit, officials said. It is not clear why she stepped in front of the train, they said, but the cause of the fatality is still under investigation.
Last week, on Thursday, July 20, Edmund Alexander Backus of Goleta was also struck and killed by an Amtrak train at the same station, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 51-year-old was riding his bicycle just after noon along the train tracks when a northbound Amtrak passenger train struck him from behind, the Sheriff’s Office said. He was wearing headphones at the time, officials said.
The coroner determined the cause of Backus’s death to be the result of an accident, deputies said.