A man died after getting hit by a train early Friday morning about 100 yards west of Pearl Street.

“It looks like a suicide,” said DeKalb Police Lt. Jim Kayes.

Andrew D. Whiting, 21, of DeKalb, intentionally walked in front of the train, Kayes said.

DeKalb police received a call from the Union Pacific Railroad Company at 5 a.m. Friday, he said.

The DeKalb County Coroner pronounced Whiting dead at the scene at 6:10 a.m.

The last suicide by train in the city occurred in Sept. 2004 at the corner of Fourth Street and Lincoln Highway, Kayes said.

There have been attempts in the past to deal with train-related incidents.

“A few years ago, a member of the city council proposed to have a fence on each side of the tracks to stop people from getting access to the tracks,” Kayes said. “But that’s hard to do and was not seriously considered.”

The motion on the city council was in response to a bad summer, in which multiple people were hit by trains, he said.

“The problem in DeKalb is that the train is readily available and it is very unforgiving,” Kayes said.

The best prevention is not doing something about the trains, Kayes said. Friends and relatives should look for the suicidal signs, take them seriously and get the person some help.