A 47-year-old woman died Thursday morning after she was struck by a train while jogging between two sets of tracks in Eloy. Thelma Candelaria had gone out for what her family described as her routine morning jog when she failed to return home.
Eloy police officers responded to the railroad crossing at Sunshine Boulevard and Frontier Street around 6 a.m. Thursday, according to the Eloy Police Department as reported by AZ Family. Police said a Union Pacific Railroad engineer saw Candelaria walking between two tracks and immediately began braking and sounding the horn, but a second train also sounded its horn after passing through the area. Police and firefighters found Candelaria dead at the scene, and family members had already told officers she had not returned home from her jog.
The crossing was temporarily closed during the investigation before reopening, and the Eloy Police Department's Vehicular Crimes Unit is now leading the formal probe under incident report ICR #2026009917. Anyone with additional information has been asked to contact the corporal directly, per the same outlet's report.
Family Launches Fundraiser Amid Investigation
In the days since Candelaria's death was confirmed, her family set up an online fundraising campaign to help the family during a difficult time, the station's report notes. The Eloy Police Department has described its investigation into the fatal collision as ongoing.
Knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully on a railroad right-of-way or track area is against Arizona law. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1502, knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully on a railroad right-of-way or track area constitutes third-degree criminal trespass, a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, according to AZ Defenders.
A Dangerous Corridor Through Downtown Eloy
Five five-legged intersections on Frontier Street are hazardous.
That mainline is part of Union Pacific's Sunset Route Gila Subdivision, a busy transcontinental freight corridor running between Southern California and the Gulf Coast and carrying roughly 35 freight trains a day, Hoodline has previously reported. Arizona Operation Lifesaver, the nonprofit that coordinates statewide public education on railroad hazards, emphasizes that modern freight trains cannot stop quickly and that pedestrians frequently underestimate both the speed and relative silence of approaching trains.
Part of a Wider Pattern Along the Line
Candelaria's death adds to a troubling string of serious incidents along this same Pinal County freight corridor. In Hoodline's coverage of a Maricopa crash weeks earlier, a vehicle-train collision at another grade crossing left a driver with serious injuries. A year before that, in November 2025, a 24-year-old driver in neighboring Casa Grande was killed after his vehicle became trapped inside crossing gates and was struck sequentially by two Union Pacific trains along the same corridor, Hoodline has reported.
The danger is not limited to Pinal County. Preliminary Federal Railroad Administration data cited in October 2026 recorded 1,314 rail trespass casualties across the United States in 2025, resulting in 788 fatalities and 526 injuries, according to Operation Lifesaver, which notes that trespassing remains the leading cause of rail-related deaths nationwide. The Eloy Police Department has not released further details on Candelaria's death as its investigation continues.
