BART has closed its North Berkeley station after a report at 4:26 p.m. Saturday of a person under a train.
Scroll to the bottom of this post for updates.
According to a statement from BART, the victim was reported under a train traveling from Richmond to Fremont.
BART is attempting to get a bus bridge in place between the North Berkeley and Del Norte stations, but currently the North Berkeley station is closed and there is no service.
According to unconfirmed scanner traffic reviewed by Berkeleyside, Berkeley firefighters were dispatched to platform 2 at the North Berkeley BART station just after 4:30 p.m. after someone reportedly jumped in front of a BART train.
Chris Lee-Egan said, via Twitter, he was on an AC Transit bus, Line 52, when passengers were discussing the incident. Those passengers said “someone jumped off the platform and laid down on the tracks to get the train to pass over.”
“According to one person, the guy said ‘watch this’ beforehand,” Lee-Egan wrote. “It wasn’t clear from the ppl whether it was suicide or a bad attempt at a stunt.”
Update, 5:40 p.m. BART put out a statement at 5:10 p.m. saying it was still making attempts to set up a bus bridge between North Berkeley BART and the Del Norte station, but that North Berkeley BART remained closed with no service.
No further information about the victim was provided. Berkeleyside has requested additional information from BART.
No updates have been provided since 5:10 p.m.
Update, 6 p.m. As of 5:55 p.m., BART said trains are running between Richmond and Fremont, but are not stopping at North Berkeley BART station.
Update, 6:02 p.m. The North Berkeley BART station has re-opened as of 6:01 p.m., according to the BART Police.
A man who was found on the tracks was taken to the hospital with moderate injuries.
There were no signs of foul play, according to the BART Police.
Update, Nov. 9, 10:30 p.m. The Berkeley Fire Department released the following statement about the incident at BART on Saturday.
On Saturday, November 8th @ 4:28PM, our Communications Center received multiple reports of a person under the train at the North Berkeley BART Station. We responded with an engine, truck, ambulance, and the duty chief.
When the companies arrived, the BART staff had already closed and evacuated the station, and shut down both train track ways. It was reported that an elderly male had jumped in front of the moving train. Firefighters walked alongside the train in an attempt to locate the victim, but were initially unsuccessful.
After about 30 minutes firefighters, and BART officials came to a mutual decision to move the train to facilitate the search. When the train was powered up, the victim started yelling and moaning. He was located at roughly the mid-point of the 6-car train.
The train was uncoupled at this location, powered up, and carefully moved off of the victim. He was positioned in a concrete trench, between the track rails. The patient was transported “Code 3” to Highland Hospital.
Update, Nov. 9, 11:50 p.m. BART also released a statement about the incident, which it classified as an attempted suicide.
“Several witnesses reported seeing the subject purposefully laying down on the track way as the train arrived,” according to BART.
As noted by the Berkeley Fire Department, it took authorities some time to find the man. He was conscious when they managed to locate him.
“The subject, who was coherent, was then transported to the Highland hospital for moderate injuries,” according to BART.
There was no evidence of foul play, and the man was placed under detention for a mental health evaluation.
BART plans to review station video as part of its investigation.
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