OAKLEY, Calif. — Believing his mother was dead, a 36-year-old man lay on the railroad tracks Wednesday, ready to die, according to the Contra Costa Times.
But a woman walking her dog saw the Oakley man put his head on the tracks so she flagged down the oncoming Amtrak train, police said.
“The engineers were able to stop the train 12 feet from where the guy was,” said Police Sgt. Eric Christensen. The train had been traveling about 35 mph near Cypress Road and Main Street, Christensen said.
The incident occurred at 2:26 p.m., right by Delta Vista Middle School, the new junior high that opened this school year. Police said the school officials kept the children at school for a few extra minutes until it was safe to let them go home.
Once the students were released, they crossed the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train tracks by using an underpass.
Traffic was delayed on Main at Cypress for nearly an hour. Police said mothers arriving to pick up children ignored traffic safety officers and drove around them, increasing the danger.
Police said the man appeared sober and could tell the train was moving relatively slowly, and so he apparently had second thoughts, moved his head off of the track and rolled over before he could have been hit.
When officers arrived, a member of the man’s family was already at the scene with the woman and her dog.
Increasing the confusion, the man’s mother was still alive, police said. The man had visited her in the intensive care unit at a hospital recently, and police do not know why he was under the impression that she had died.
The man was taken by ambulance to Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, where he will undergo a mental health evaluation.