A man found dead on an elevated section of Expo Line tracks in Culver City over the weekend was identified Tuesday as a 48-year-old Long Beach resident.
Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter said an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday on the body of Bernard Bettis, but early indications are that the first reported fatality on the Expo Line may have been the result of an accidental fall.
Sgt. Andrew Bedogne of the sheriff's Transit Bureau said the victim "wasn't hit by a train'' and showed no signs of trauma, and Metro spokesman Rick Jager said the man "may have fallen from the platform area, onto the tracks.''
Los Angeles city firefighters were sent to Platform 2 at the Culver City Station, 8804 W. Washington Blvd., at 1:19 a.m. Sunday and declared Bettis dead.
The investigation was turned over to the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau, which is charge of policing Metro trains, buses and stations.
Expo trains, which run until about 2 a.m. on weekends, get their electricity from overhead lines, and no electrical malfunction was reported.
The Culver City Station is at the end of the above-ground line, and trains routinely creep into it to stop at a barrier just before the tracks end, 40 feet above the ground.
The Culver City Station is elevated above Washington Boulevard, but the victim apparently did not fall further than the three feet from the platform to the tracks, Jager said.
Service on the Expo Line began June 20.
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