SLO woman in critical condition after being hit by Amtrak train

UPDATE SATURDAY 1 p.m.: The woman who was hit by the train was transferred to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, the San Luis Obispo police said Saturday. That hospital has a Level 1 trauma center, the highest designation for comprehensive treatment of traumatic injuries. 

ORIGINAL STORY FRIDAY: A San Luis Obispo woman was in critical condition in a local hospital after being hit by a northbound Amtrak train Friday evening.

The woman and a man were walking near the track south of the Orcutt Road crossing when the train hit the woman sometime around 8:15 p.m., said San Luis Obispo police Sgt. Chad Pfarr. The train engineer told police that the man and woman, one pushing a bicycle, appeared to be walking northbound when the train came, Pfarr said. The engineer said the man ran away.

The San Luis Obispo Fire Department and police responded to the scene and the woman was taken by ambulance to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center. Pfarr said the woman was critically injured but no one was hurt on the train, which came to a stop south of the Orcutt Road crossing.

A man who identified himself as Scott Moore returned to the scene about a half hour after the accident and told police that he was the man who had run from the train.

Moore said he was walking back from the Marigold Shopping Center and was about to cross the tracks when he ran into the woman, who had a bicycle with her. She warned him that the train was coming.

“She said, ‘Scott, get off the track,’” he said in an interview after speaking to police. “I turned around — I had to walk 2 or 3 feet down (the rail bed) — and when I turned around, the train was whizzing by. I thought she got hit. Thank God she’s alive.”

Moore said he ran to a friend’s house at a mobile home park across the street and the friend told him to go back to talk to police.

Pfarr did not release the woman’s name. Moore, who said he has camped nearby for years, said the woman also was homeless and has lived in the area for a long time.

The Amtrak train was delayed for about 90 minutes.

This story was originally published February 6, 2015 at 10:14 PM with the headline "SLO woman in critical condition after being hit by Amtrak train."