Two men were struck and killed by an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train on Friday night near Faria Beach Park in Ventura County, in a collision on the coastal tracks off Pacific Coast Highway that is now being investigated as an accident by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. The men were pronounced dead at the scene, and none of the 119 passengers and crew members aboard the train was injured.

Source: NBC Los Angeles via Red News Nation fact-check summary

The deadly collision happened at around 9:45 p.m. on Friday, November 13, near the 4300 block of Pacific Coast Highway, where the railroad tracks run along the Pacific Ocean just off the highway, beside the popular beach and camping area at Faria Beach Park. Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train 785 was travelling from San Diego to Goleta when it struck the two men. Emergency crews rushed to the scene, but both victims were pronounced dead before they could be transported to a hospital.

The response on the coastal tracks

The Ventura County Sheriff's Office is investigating the collision as an accident, according to NBC Los Angeles. Amtrak police and the California Highway Patrol also responded to the scene. Video captured near the scene showed the passenger train stopped along the tracks while emergency personnel investigated, and the shutdown disrupted the train's journey along the Southern California coast. The train later reached Carpinteria several hours late, the New York Post reported.

What Amtrak says

Amtrak said the two men were trespassing on railroad property at the time of the incident. The company emphasized that trespassing remains the leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States, warning that even familiar stretches of railroad can become deadly in an instant. Amtrak also acknowledged the devastating consequences such incidents can have on victims' families, on passengers and on train crews, who have no way to stop a train quickly once a person is seen on the tracks.

What investigators still do not know

As of Saturday, November 14, authorities had not publicly released the men's names, and investigators had not publicly established the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Officials have not confirmed what led the two men onto the tracks, or whether they were together when the collision occurred. Their identities are expected to be released by the county coroner once they are formally identified and their families notified — until then, officials are asking the public not to speculate about who they were or why they were there.

Background: the Surfliner and the coastal corridor

The Pacific Surfliner is Amtrak's passenger service along the Southern California coast, linking San Diego with destinations including Goleta, and its route runs for long stretches directly beside Pacific Coast Highway and the beach communities of Ventura County. It is one of the most scenic rail corridors in America — and one where trains pass, at speed and after dark, through areas popular with beachgoers, campers and tourists. Friday night's tragedy has renewed attention on the dangers of entering railroad tracks along that corridor, where the line can feel like part of the beach landscape even though it is an active, high-speed railway.

What happens next

The Ventura County Sheriff's Office investigation remains ongoing, and Amtrak police are assisting. The next official steps are the formal identification of the two men by the coroner's office and the release of their names, followed by the investigators' findings on how they came to be on the tracks at 9:45 p.m. on a Friday night. For Punjabi and other South Asian families across Ventura, Los Angeles and the wider Southern California coast — many of whom use the Surfliner corridor and the beaches along Pacific Coast Highway every weekend — the deaths are a stark reminder that the tracks beside the sand are never a shortcut and never a footpath.