A possum — not a person as originally reported — was struck and killed by a train Thursday morning in Van Nuys, authorities said.
“A train hit a possum,” said LAPD Sgt. Mike Zabowski outside of the Van Nuys train station. “No person. But because we have to make sure that’s why the train was held. There was no emergency stop or anything like that.”
Some media had scrambled to the scene because they thought it was a person but it ended of being a possum. Of the size of the animal, Zabowski said it was “big enough to get hit by a train” and killed afterward.
The collision was reported at 6:05 a.m. Thursday at 7720 N. Van Nuys Boulevard, said Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The location at Cabrito Road is west of the Living Spaces furniture store and south of The Plant shopping center.
Zabowski said the passengers on the train had been transferred to another train and Metrolink was conducting safety procedures and checks and inspections before service would begin again.
Fire personnel left the scene at 6:32 a.m., Stewart said.
The possum was found after a search of the train tracks, Zabowksi said.
“With everybody looking they found a chicken in a bag with its head cut off,” he said. “They were thinking it was a chicken. But what’s on the front of the train is not a chicken. So they looked a little further and found the possum.”
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