Death an old friend to Alvarez

In a working-class neighborhood known as Colonia Vicente Guerrero west of downtown Mexicali, a young boy lay in the middle of the street waiting for a car or bus to run him over and end his life.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

But the bus that finally came stopped inches from him and a middle-aged woman hopped out and hurriedly approached the boy.

"Es Juan!" the woman screamed, grabbing her grandson - young Juan Manuel Alvarez - into her arms and scurrying to her house nearby.

Two decades later and a country to the north, the 29-year-old Alvarez's death wish eventually led to the worst disaster in Metrolink history when he stopped his SUV on the tracks near the Glendale-Los Angeles city line and the resulting train derailment killed 11 people and injured more than 180. others.