LOS ANGELES - At least seven people were killed and officials fear the death toll could reach 15 or higher after a freight train and commuter train collided head-on on Friday outside Los Angeles.
Some two hours after the two trains, which were headed in opposite directions on the same track, slammed together west of Los Angeles at about 4:30 p.m. PDT, officials feared that more bodies may lay under the twisted wreckage.
Officials at the commuter train service, Metrolink, said the death toll was at least seven and that at least two dozen people were injured, 10 of them critically.
A spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told KCBS-TV that as many as 15 people might have been killed.
The commuter train held more than 350 passengers and crew. It was not immediately clear why the two trains were on the same track.
Rescue crews put out a fire caused by the collision and fought to free trapped victims as heavy equipment was brought in to move the cars.
"I was riding, sitting down, minding my own business when all of a sudden -- boom, people go flying all over the place," 67-year-old passenger Willie Castro told the Los Angeles Times.
"Everyone started screaming. You could hear that everyone was in pain," he said in a story on the newspaper's website.
A spokeswoman for Metrolink said the cause of the crash was not immediately clear but would be investigated.
Favorite Bond Movie: The Dark Knight Trilogy, Mission: Impossible, Kingsman: The Secret Service and The November Man or any upcoming actioners starring Pierce Brosnan (no, it's not James Bond which is good since it will help him expand his reputation as an actor especially in the action realm)
Favorite Movies: Star Wars Indiana Jones Star Trek The Dark Knight Trilogy Harry Potter Middle-Earth The Matrix Mission: Impossible The Mummy Jurassic Park Godzilla
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers 30 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - In a surprisingly swift assessment, the operators of the commuter train involved in the head-on crash that killed at least 25 people blamed its engineer for the horrific accident.
However, a National Transportation Safety Board member cautioned that it was too early to establish the cause of Friday's accident. Others, too, questioned the timing of the operator's move to affix culpability.
Rescuers were still carefully picking apart the twisted wreckage Saturday when Metrolink announced — 19 hours after the crash — that its preliminary investigation determined the engineer failed to heed a red signal light, leading to the collision with a Union Pacific freight train.
The Metrolink engineer was among the dead, the NTSB said. His name has not been released. A total of 135 people were injured.
There was no change in the death toll Sunday. There were no new reports of any injured passengers dying at hospitals and the crash site had been cleared of bodies, said Lt. Cheryl MacWillie of the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
A visibly distraught Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, said the company was stepping ahead of the NTSB in suggesting a cause of the accident because "we want to have an honest dialogue with our community." She said internal investigators had reviewed dispatcher recordings and operation of the trackside signal system.
Part of the railroad's safety system involves a series of signals that tell engineers whether the path ahead is clear. According to Metrolink, the engineer missed a stop signal shortly before the accident site — the last of three that would have warned another train was ahead on a single stretch of track. In that area, trains going both ways share track that winds through a series of narrow tunnels.
The NTSB, the federal agency leading the investigation, did not rule out Metrolink's theory but will complete its witness interviews and review of evidence — which could take a year — before announcing conclusions.
"We don't know why it happened, and it's our job to find out," said board member Kitty Higgins.
Higgins said rescue teams on Saturday recovered two data recorders from the Metrolink train and one data recorder and one video recorder from the freight train. The video has pictures from forward-looking cameras and the data recorders have information on speed, braking patterns and whether the horn was used.
The passenger train was believed to have been traveling about 40 mph.
Investigators planned to test the signals on the track and the brakes on the trains as well as interview Metrolink dispatchers.
The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park in the San Fernando Valley. There is a siding at one end of the tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.
Higgins noted that a pair of switches that control whether a train goes onto the siding were open. One of them should have been closed, she said.
"The indication is that it was forced open," possibly by the Metrolink train, she said.
The Metrolink train, heading from downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County, was carrying 220 passengers, one engineer and a conductor, and the freight train had a crew of three.
The crash forced the Metrolink engine well back into the first passenger car, and both toppled over. Two other passenger cars remained upright.
Of the 135 people injured, 81 were taken to hospitals in serious or critical condition. No overall condition update was available Saturday, but a telephone survey of five hospitals found nine of 34 patients still critical.
The Metrolink engineer was employed by Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of Veolia Transportation, which said it began operating Metrolink routes in 2005. The company issued a brief statement saying it was "fully cooperating" with investigators.
Metrolink's assertion that engineer error caused the accident drew some criticism.
Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metrolink board member Don Knabe said it's premature to blame the engineer.
"There could always be a technical malfunction where ... there was a green light both ways," he said.
Ray Garcia, a Metrolink conductor until 2006 who now works for Amtrak, said initial evidence could be misleading, as in the case of a central computer inaccurately showing that a signal was red.
"It is a rush to judgment," he said. "It's just way too early in the game to point the finger."
I am surprised to ehar so little about this !
I guess Ike hogged all teh headlines
Chief of Staff, 007's gone round the bend. Says someone's been trying to feed him a poisoned banana. Fellow's lost his nerve. Been in the hospital too long. Better call him home.
Favorite Bond Movie: The Dark Knight Trilogy, Mission: Impossible, Kingsman: The Secret Service and The November Man or any upcoming actioners starring Pierce Brosnan (no, it's not James Bond which is good since it will help him expand his reputation as an actor especially in the action realm)
Favorite Movies: Star Wars Indiana Jones Star Trek The Dark Knight Trilogy Harry Potter Middle-Earth The Matrix Mission: Impossible The Mummy Jurassic Park Godzilla
By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - California regulators reacting to the deadly wreck of a commuter train issued an emergency order Thursday banning train operators from using cell phones on duty.
The Public Utilities Commission's unanimous decision to pass the temporary order came a day after investigators confirmed that the engineer of the Metrolink commuter train was text-messaging while on duty on the day the train ran a red light and collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train. Last week's wreck in Los Angeles killed 25 people, including the engineer, and injured more than 130.
Some railroads — including Metrolink — prohibit operators from using cell phones on the job, but the commission's president, Michael R. Peevey, has said the rules are widely ignored. There is no federal regulation of cell-phone use by railroad workers and until Thursday there had been no California rules.
Richard Clark, the commission's director of consumer protection and safety, said the use of cell phones was "implicated" in two earlier accidents this year involving other rail systems, but he declined to comment on its specific role in either case until the investigations are completed.
Under the new order the board approved in San Francisco, violators could be fined up to $20,000 per violation or have their operations shut down.
"Today's action will protect the public," Peevey said. "What we're doing today is just a modest first step in a much larger effort to improve railroad safety."
The National Transportation Safety Board requested the cell phone records of engineer Robert Sanchez after two teenage train fans said they exchanged text messages with him shortly before the crash Friday in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Chatsworth.
An NTSB statement issued Wednesday night did not say how many messages were found in the records or if any texting occurred shortly before the crash.
Sanchez's cell phone was not found in the severely crushed and burned wreckage, but the teens told KCBS-TV last week that they received a text message from the engineer at 4:22 p.m. — a minute before the collision.
The crash occurred at a curve in the track just short of where a 500-foot-long tunnel separates Chatsworth from Simi Valley and Moorpark in Ventura County.
Less than an hour before the wreck, Sanchez had called in an order for a roast beef sandwich that he was to pick up after making the train's final scheduled stop in Moorpark, the owner of the sandwich shop said Thursday.
"He said he was at Union Station (downtown) and that he wanted to call ahead to place his order," said Randy Richardson, owner of The Hub sandwich shop. "He wanted to make sure we were going to be open when he got to Moorpark, and said he would pick it up during his layover."
Richardson said Sanchez regularly stopped by his shop in the last two years.
"He was a super nice guy. We talked about sports, the weather, politics, what's going on in the news. Just a regular Joe," Richardson said.
The NTSB has determined Sanchez did not apply the brakes before the collision and ran a red light that could have prevented it. The agency said the tracks and signals were working properly and that human error was to blame.
Investigators are looking into Sanchez's work schedule. He was working an 10 1/2-hour split shift at the time of the crash. He began his shift at 6 a.m., took a nap during a 4 1/2-hour break and resumed duty at 2 p.m., about 2 1/2 hours before the crash, the NTSB said. His shift was to have ended at 9 p.m.
Memorial services were held Thursday for some of the crash victims, including Los Angeles police Officer Spree Desha. "She was all we could ever ask of someone who puts this badge on their chest," Chief William Bratton said.
One of the most compelling images in the hours after the crash came when police officers and sheriff's deputies formed lines and saluted as Desha's flag-draped body was carried from a crumpled train car.
In 2003, the NTSB recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration regulate the use of cell phones after finding that an engineer's phone use contributed to a fatal May 2002 accident in Texas.
Members of the FRA's railroad safety advisory committee have been considering restricting electronic device usage in the locomotive cab as it develops new safety rules, agency spokesman Steven Kulm said. He said the group discussed the matter in meetings earlier in the year and plans to meet next week in Chicago.
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Associated Press Writer Terence Chea contributed to this story from San Francisco.
