(Note: the previous thread on this subject broke down to childish insults, so I'm starting a new thread; if you don't have anything constructive to add, remember: noboby cares.)

Sacramento Bee article with little information:

[www.sacbee.com]

SATURDAY NIGHT

The papers have little on the subject, probably due to the holiday weekend and the fatality happening after deadline. The police blotter called it an injury, and said it took place near Kendall & 2nd, which is a mile east of the station. From what I've been able to piece together, a freight hit a tresspasser and accounts place the location much closer to the station, around the corner east of the depot. The person made it to the next track and was hit by #748. They apparently surmised this by the position of the various 'parts'. Despite the police blotter, this was a fatality by the second hit. #748 was dealyed about three hours. The details should be considered unconfirmed.

MONDAY NIGHT

Just before 11pm, westbound UP 3971 (or a dyslexic variation of those numbers), travelling on Track #2, hit a minivan (or similar) at Road 105 (Swingle), destroying the van and kiilling the two occupants. An unconfrimed report was the occupants were a woman and a ten-year-old child. The van was dragged several hundred feet down the track. The train, a double stack "Z" train, stopped just east of the Mace overcrossing, its tail end stopping just past the collision site. The eastbound evening local on Track #1 pulled up to the nose of the container train, I speculate to offer some company to the crew who just experienced the collision.

#748, the same train number as involved in Saturday's collision, was just appoaching Davis and stayed in place on Track #1. A friend of mine, who has a late shift and regularly commutes home to Sacramento on this train, had just boarded. I saw him a few minutes later on his bicycle headed east on 2nd Street towards Sacramento. He had also been on Saturday's train and yelled to me, "I wish these damn people would pick somewhere else to off themselves." Passengers who remained on #748 were eventually bussed and the consist and crew left to wait. At some point #14 pulled up outside of Davis, unable to pass.

At around 2am, the decision was made to back #748 west from Davis to allow #14 to come in on Track #1. This allowed passengers for Davis to disembark and the agent at Davis to close up the station. I don't know why this wasn't done earlier.

At about 3am, one crew member on #14 called aonther on the radio and said, "There's a guy DOIN' a lady on a table in the lounge car." The crew answered back, "What!?!" . . . and after confirmation grumbled that he'd be right up. This was too good to miss, so I put on some shoes and walked up to the lounge car. Downstaris, a member of the train crew was giving a stern speech to a middle-aged, and probably intoxicated, man and woman in a policeman/stern parent sort of way. I could almost hear him saying, "I don't want to catch you guys again." The man ran off into the coaches after nodding, "yes" and the woman left separately. On my way back, I happened to go by the crew lounge in the lower level of the crew car. The same crew member was telling another crew member about the incident and they were belly-ache laughing. At one point the crew member gave a split-second rendition of the male role in the scene he had come upon on a lower-level lounge table and they both busted up laughing, as did I.

Sometime around 3:30 the dispatcher cleared the new crew on UP 3971 to proceed west on track #2 and announced there was no track damage at the accident site. Before this could occur, #748 had to pull up to the tail of #14 to clear the crossover at west Davis. The passenger trains still had to wait, for although the car had been removed, they were still clearing debris. Between about 4:15am and 4:30am, the two passenger trains were given clearance and moved on to Sacramento. It was all cleared just in time. The first communter train of the day, due at 4:45am, was only five minutes late.