Train hits Stanislaus Sheriff vehicle after deputy parks it on railroad tracks during call

A patrol deputy’s vehicle was totaled Wednesday morning after he left it parked on railroad tracks and it was hit by a train, according to a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Sgt. Veronica Esquivez said the deputy was responding to a report at approximately 4:30 a.m. of a man and woman screaming at each other near the railroad tracks in the 400 block of E Street in Empire.

The deputy’s SUV sustained major damage and cannot be repaired. Esquivez did not know the train’s speed.

She said she is limited in how much she can say because the reports regarding the incident have not yet been submitted and this is a personnel matter involving a deputy. “I don’t know why he parked there,” she said.

No one was injured, Esquivez said, and no arrests were made related to the report of the man and woman screaming at each other. She said other deputies responded to the call as well.

Esquivez declined to provide the deputy’s name. She said the Sheriff’s Department’s typical process is for internal affairs to investigate reports of department employees damaging department property.