I've been through this death on the tracks/incident on the tracks thing, a half a dozen times on the RR, and worked with CHP how to respond to incidents without closing down the freeway system. It is complicated and varies by jurisdiction, greatly.

If there is an ongoing threat to life and safety, then close it, is always the response (rightly so). If there has been a fatality, wait on the coroner's office (some have good response policies, others, not so good), and you wait. Crime scene is a different story, with CHP doing a much better job than some of our local cops (like the imfamous Riverside Sheriffs 8 hour shut down of I-10 a while back at Cabazon, without bothering to even contact CHP or Caltrans and tell them...duh???).

Since we don't know the details of the closure, it's hard to say if this was appropriate or not. Unfortunately, many local cops are not as well informed or trained on incident response as the CHP, and more often do overreact out of an abundance of caution, or occasionally with a level of stupid (like the I-10 incident) that borders on outright incompetence (inhaled too much leaded gas when growing up....?). More training and better communications generally leads to a better incident response, quicker incident clearance, and less disruptions for the public has been my experience, though.

Yes, Samantha, at least a few of these posts were insensitive, ignorant, and stupid, as someone might also say about yours? But, a few of these folks would appear to be genuinely pissed at the seemingly unnecessary delays that were imposed on the rail service and interested in why this happens,