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(The Orange County Register posted the following article by Brian Martinez and Greg Hardesty on its website on April 4.)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Adam Underwood planned to take his girlfriend of seven years to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, today and marry her there Saturday.

But instead of joining in the celebration, his family and friends mourned Wednesday at his Fountain Valley home.

Underwood, 40, was killed Tuesday when an Amtrak train struck him and co- worker Antonio Almanza, 61, of Los Angeles after they had finished inspecting the track in Laguna Niguel. Determining why the two apparently did not hear or see the southbound train could take several months, authorities said.

Underwood, a Huntington Beach native, had a terrific sense of humor, a kind heart and a passion for dirt-biking, surfing and deep-sea fishing, friends said.

“He’ll be deeply missed by more people than can be counted,” friend Todd Sarvis said.

A Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail motorcycle sits in Underwood’s garage amid dozens of pin-up posters taken from surf magazines. Many of the posters are signed by their respective models, and a long- running joke among friends is that Underwood signed them himself.

The garage also holds two dirt bikes: Underwood’s Yamaha 400 and a smaller one for his fiancée, Wendy Harrison. She was too distraught Wednesday to comment.

Underwood had worked for Herzog Contracting Corp. of Oceanside for three years. He enjoyed his railroad-related work and never expressed concerns about his safety, friends said.

Witnesses have said they heard a train whistle while the two men walked toward an exit gate with their backs to the train at 12:45 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the investigation with Amtrak, Metrolink and two regulatory agencies: the Federal Railroad Administration and the California Public Utilities Commission.

Three other subcontractors who were working with Underwood and Almanza when the accident occurred at Camino Capistrano and Avery Parkway were interviewed, NTSB investigator Mike Flanigon said. The names of the three were not available.

Investigators have conducted “sight-distance” testing, trying to figure out when the train engineer could see the men on the tracks, and vice versa.

Officials removed the train’s event recorder, which will be sent to be studied at an NTSB lab in Washington, D.C.