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| Re: Nasty LA Metrolink /truck wreck this morning (1341233) | |||
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Re: Nasty LA Metrolink /truck wreck this morning |
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Posted by Gold_12th on Tue Feb 24 14:22:31 2015, in response to Nasty LA Metrolink /truck wreck this morning, posted by Joe V on Tue Feb 24 10:15:10 2015. Last update:A Metrolink train derailed early Tuesday in Oxnard after slamming into a truck, injuring 28 people, four of them critically. The driver of the truck left the scene and was taken into custody, officials said. A Metrolink engineer was among the most severely injured, said Bryan Wong, chief medical officer at Ventura County Medical Center. The train was going 79 mph near the crossing at 5th Street and Rice Avenue at about 5:40 a.m. when its engineer spotted the truck, said Sergio Martinez of the Oxnard Fire Department. The engineer immediately hit the brakes but was unable to stop in time, officials said. Four train cars derailed. There were no fatalities, but 28 of the 51 passengers on board were injured and taken to local hospitals. Injuries included significant head trauma, broken limbs, and back and neck injuries, emergency service personnel said. At Ventura County Medical Center, Wong said of the nine patients brought to the hospital three were in critical condition. He said he spoke with one train passenger, now in stable condition. The man told Wong he sitting at a small table working on his laptop when he felt a sudden jerking movement. "It was so quick, he wasn't able to hold onto the table and he was thrown literally across the train," Wong said. There were a lot of friends and family members at the bedside of those hospitalized, Wong said. Nearby business owner Mark Perrier said he heard the crash Tuesday morning. "It was horrendous," Perrier said. "There was a very loud crash. The engineer was on his horn." Two neighbors told the L.A. Times that the safety arms at the crossing don't drop when a train is coming. But Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said, “All indications are that, at the point of the incident, everything at the crossing including the gate arms and emergency notifications and bells were working properly.” Fire officials at the scene said the train was traveling at its cruising speed of 79 mph when the engineer spotted the truck and anticipated the crash from "a far distance out." The engineer immediately initiated the train's flashing lights and braking mechanisms. The exact type of vehicle struck by the train wasn’t immediately known. But fire officials said it was not uncommon for farm equipment to travel through the area. Initially, officials said the truck was on fire before it was hit by the train. Capt. Mike Linbery, public information officer for the Ventura county Fire Department, later said officials were unsure if the truck was on fire before or after the crash. A trailer being towed by the truck was on fire when authorities arrived, Lindbery said. The driver left the scene but was found a couple of miles away and was taken into custody, officials said. Jorge Garcia, 56, was getting ready for work when he heard something unusual shortly before 6 a.m. He didn't think much of it until he heard the ambulances racing past his home. "I just heard a bang and then an explosion," Garcia said. "It was a big old boom. And then the ambulances started. ... You could see it was something big." Multiple emergency units responded. Several tarps were laid out where victims were being treated. Others were on stretchers being wheeled into ambulances. Three of the four cars that derailed had been equipped with a “crash energy management” system meant to absorb the shock of a crash and redistribute force away from passengers, a Metrolink official said. The fourth car, a bicycle car, was not equipped with the system. Union Pacific was hoping to make repairs by the morning, fire officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates rail crashes, said in a tweet that agency officials were aware of the incident and were gathering information. In 2008, a Metrolink commuter train collided with a Union Pacific freight train on a stretch of shared track in Chatsworth, killing 25 people and injuring others. Investigators said the Metrolink engineer went through a signal light that should have warned him to stop until the freight had moved onto a siding. A year ago, Metrolink launched a state-of-the-art safety system along sections of its 512-mile network in Southern California at a ceremony that remembered the Chatsworth crash victims. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-trail-derails-30-injured-20150224-story.html |
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