[Update] Woman Killed by Train in Montecito

[Update, 4:33 p.m., August 14] The decedent has been identified as 60-year-old Kate McClure-Hamilton of Pasadena, CA.

[Original Story]

Just after 7 a.m. this morning, a woman in her sixties was struck and killed by an eastbound Amtrak passenger train in Montecito, where Eucalyptus Lane crosses the railroad tracks. “At this point, it appears that the woman deliberately walked in front of the train,” according to Kelly Hoover, public information officer for the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department. Hoover said the train’s engineer called 9-1-1. The woman has been identified, but her name will not be released publicly until relatives are notified, Hoover said.

The death marks the fourth in as many months along the South Coast this year. On July 20, Thomas Henry Grimm, 59, was killed near the zoo. On July 14, 21-year-old Maria Valasquez-Cruz was hit from behind while walking west between the tracks near the north end of Magnolia Avenue. And on May 20, a homeless man was killed just west of Milpas Street.