Coroner ID's Body Found On Thousand Palms Train Tracks

PALM DESERT, CA — A Fontana man died on the train tracks early Tuesday in Indio, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department Coroner's Bureau shared.

Enrique Cuellar, 49, of Fontana, was identified following notification of next of kin, according to the coroner's report. He was pronounced deceased a half hour after being struck by a train on the Union Pacific Railroad, according to reports.

Emergency responders arrived at the railroad tracks south of Ramon Road in Thousand Palms just after 3 a.m., where Cuellar was found.

According to Union Pacific spokesperson Jill Micek, Manager-Communications, Corporate Relations, Cuellar was described as a "trespasser on Union Pacific tracks that was struck and killed by a train" in the incident, which began on the tracks near Varner Road and I-10.

The train crew was not injured in the incident, she said, adding that "support is being offered to crew members operating the train at the time of the incident."

The sheriff's department assisted the Union Pacific Railroad Police in the investigation following the incident.