Big derailment in Ca. Fox News is reporting a Metrolink & a freight collided. The Metrolink is on its side & on fire.
Chatsworth Metrolink crash Anybody hear about the Metrolink crash with a freight in Chatsworth, Ca. The Metrolink got knocked right of its wheels. Still can’t figure out if it was a head-on.
From what I've heard... head on collision between Metrolink train 111 and the UP Leesdale Local. The west/north end of Chatsworth siding is about 1/2 mile behind the Metrolink train. Leads to the question of signal failure(false clear???) or human error. Judging from pictures/video, looks like a lot more than the 6 fatalities that the news channels are reporting. Very nasty wreck, Metrolink unit is halfway inside the lead car, both on their sides. Lead unit of the local is on it's side, plus 8-10 cars stacked up. I wish the best for anyone involved and their families.
Commuter train, freight train collide in LA; 4 die - Yahoo! News Yahoo's article on it. Didnt a similar incident happen just a few years back with a BNSF train?
The death toll is going to be much higher looking at the way that engine is telescoped into the passenger car. Much higher.
Looking like the UP was suppost to take a siding but the passenger train ran a red light by the siding and continued on. No proof, just what some UP employees on another board are saying.
Just heard about this and figured you guys would be on it. Pat, thanks for the link. What a mess. =( -Mike
I know the area and that was my thought too. Either red block or maybe even a false clear. I know the guys on the UP crew, sure hope they came out alright. Leesdale Local... runs out of Gemco, up to Oxnard and back.
I am a Metro employee and was supposed to work the bus bridge around it. How did MetroLink 111 get into the same block with a freight train coming down on it? The impact caused the F59 PH to telescope back into the first car. They had initially said 7 dead but I know that the first mid-section contains at least seating for 19. They'd be killed instantly... When that engine gets separated from that first car, they'll find that out. I take MetroLink to work also, from Santa Clarita. Either a false clear but what the switch alignment? More than meets the eye...
Metrolink and UP Train Collid Head On In Chatsworth C.A. From Yahoo news. Video of the scene: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9712611&ch=4226713&src=news By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - A commuter train carrying 222 people collided head-on with a freight train during the Friday afternoon rush, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens and trapping an unknown number of others in a passenger car crushed by its own engine. Firefighters extinguished a blaze under part of the wreckage and were working hours after the collision to free people from the destroyed Metrolink commuter car, which was left toppled on its side with the train's engine shoved back inside it. Two other cars in the passenger train remained upright. The Union Pacific freight train's engine was also turned onto its side, with the rest of the train splayed out like an accordion behind it. The cause of the collision was under investigation. It was not clear how the two trains ended up heading toward each other on the same track. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters at the scene that 10 people were confirmed dead and that the toll could go to 15. He said the number of injured was probably more than 100. "This is the worst accident I've ever seen," Villaraigosa said. "Clearly the injuries are going to mount and so are the fatalities." Police Lt. John Romero said the death toll was 10 to 20. Fire Chief Dennis Barry said the Metrolink locomotive was deeply embedded into the passenger car. "We have victims on top of victims," Barry said. One of the dead was a Los Angeles police officer, said Assistant Police Chief James McDonnell. The crash "made a terrible sound, like a bomb, a huge noise," said Julio Pedraza, 35, who lives and works at a nearby horse boarding facility. He said he saw passengers emerging from the wreckage, and he and others helped the injured, one with skin peeling off of his forehead. "They were yelling for help and crying," Pedraza said in Spanish. Firefighters treated the injured at three triage areas near the wreck, and helicopters flew in and out of a nearby landing area on medical evacuation flights. Rescuers worked atop the wreckage and through breaches in the passenger car to reach victims. Dazed and injured passengers sat on the ground and milled about on both sides of the tracks. Surgeons were sent to the scene. Dr. Stephanie Hall, chief medical officer at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said three people in critical condition — two females and a male — were being treated at the hospital. "They are massive injuries," she said. One of the largest medical facilities in the area, Northridge Hospital Medical Center, was told to prepare for the arrival of injured passengers, said hospital spokeswoman Christina Zicklin. A male passenger told KNBC-TV he boarded the Metrolink train in suburban Burbank and was talking with a fellow passenger when the crash occurred. "Within an instant I was in my friend's lap. It was so quick. It was devastating," he said. The man was visibly injured, but able to walk with the aid of firefighters. The man said he was involved in a devastating 2005 Metrolink crash in Glendale and was talking about it with the other passenger when Friday's crash occurred. The trains collided in the Chatsworth area of the San Fernando Valley. Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said there were 220 passengers aboard the passenger train, along with one driver and one conductor. "I do not know what caused the wreck. Obviously two trains are not supposed to be on the same track at the same time," said Tyrrell who broke down crying and was shaking. The condition of the freight crew was not immediately known. Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said a freight train usually has a two-person crew. She also said it is common in California for freight and commuter trains to share the same track. "You see it a lot in California where commuter trains share tracks with freight trains," Richmond said, adding she couldn't speculate about the cause of the crash. Tyrrell said the Metrolink train left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and was headed northwest to Moorpark in Ventura County. She said the Metrolink train was being pulled by its locomotive rather than being pushed. The push mode is controversial due to claims that it makes trains more vulnerable in accidents. The crash happened in an area where the tracks form a "U" shape, about 2,500 feet wide. At the top of the bend is a 500-foot long tunnel that runs beneath Stoney Point Park, popular with climbers for its large boulders. On the north side of the tunnel, there is a siding, a length of track where one train can wait for another to pass, Tyrrell said. The area where the crash occured, which is used by freight and commuter trains, has a reputation for trouble, said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California. "That stretch of rail — an 18-mile stretch — has had a lot of crossing accidents, a lot of other accidents in the last 10 years," Meshkati said. The federal investigation into the crash will be headed by the National Transportation Safety Board, said Steven Kulm, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration. The FRA will conduct a review of whether any federal rail safety regulations were violated, he said. Asked about how the two trains ended up on the same track, Kulm said, "We are nowhere near having any information on that." The toppled passenger car was part of a Bombardier BiLevel coach, commonly used for regional railways from Seattle's commuter rail Sounder to New Jersey Transit. Each double-decker car is about 16 feet high and 10 feet wide and can seat up to 160 passengers, depending on its configuration. The worst disaster in Metrolink's history occurred on Jan. 26, 2005, in suburban Glendale, when a man parked a gasoline-soaked SUV on railroad tracks. A Metrolink train struck the SUV and derailed, striking another Metrolink train traveling the other way, killing 11 people and injuring about 180 others. Juan Alvarez was convicted this year of murder for causing the crash. ___ Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon, Greg Risling, Denise Petski, Josh Dickey, James Beltran and John Rogers contributed to this report.
I have been watching the LA news feeds for most of the afternoon and its now midnight and I must now go to bed... To all those who are suffering personally during this time, I offer my love and prayers. To those that lost their lives, may your God enfold you in his loving arms; may you walk in the light forever.
MSNBC now reporting at least 17 fatalities, including Metrolink engineer:tb-sad: May God be with the survivors and the families of those who perished
