Man Killed by Train in Montecito

[UPDATE: June 10, 1 p.m.] The county Sheriff’s Office has identified the victim as Paul Welterlen, 61, and has called his death an apparent suicide.

[ORIGINAL STORY]

A male pedestrian was struck and killed Wednesday afternoon by an Amtrak train at Butterfly Lane near Hill Road in Montecito. Shortly after 3 p.m., the conductor on the northbound-traveling, passenger-carrying Pacific Surfliner Train spotted a person on the tracks. He sounded the horn and applied the emergency brake, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kelly Hoover in a prepared statement, but wasn’t able to stop in time. The adult victim was declared dead at the scene.

Although the deceased has been identified, his name has not been released because his family has not yet been notified. The Sheriff-Coroner’s Office is investigating the man’s death, whose official cause hasn’t been determined pending a toxicology report.