FEBRUARY 24, 2015
OXNARD, CALIFORNIA. (AP)
Dozens of people have been injured in the crash of a
Southern California commuter train and a truck northwest of Los Angeles.
Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson tells the Los Angeles
Times at least 30 people were injured in the crash early Tuesday.
The collision has toppled three of the train's passenger
cars onto their sides. A fourth car is derailed but remains upright, along with
the engine.
The scene is in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of Los
Angeles.
It is about time that the government and the rail industry get together and urgently upgrade these intersections, especially the most dangerous ones. We understand that the rail industry does not want to spent many billions of dollars to upgrade them, and that the death and injuries over the years has declined, but there have been so many collisions in the recent years that we get the feeling that things need improvement. Come on Metrolink and Metronorth and CSX and Warren Buffet and so on. This is your America as well, after all. Just spend the money and improve the safety of these crossings.
The truck issue, however, is another big "monster issue" that needs to be resolved URGENTLY. They are causing so many accidents and deaths. About 34,000 people died last year (not all to truck-related accidents); the vehicles are lethal weapons and the people that operate them should be strictly scrutinized prior to being licensed to ensure that they are capable of operating them.
34,000 lives are lost and hundreds of thousands injured per year from vehicle accidents. The human and property damage toll is enormous. These are areas that as a country we have to roll up our sleeves and work hard to fix them, no matter what the financial cost. Tax the crude oil and gas and petroleum distillates to get the funding, if need money right away.
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Oxnard police Sgt. Denise Shadinger said the crash was reported at 5:44 a.m. Shadinger said the truck became fully engulfed in flames. Authorities are describing the scene as a multi-casualty incident.
Authorities at a morning news conference said many of the victims were treated for head and extremity injuries. The train, which has a cruising speed of about 79 miles per hour, was traveling 'significantly' slower at the time of impact, an official said.
"The conductor noticed the car early and established emergency protocol. He anticipated the crash from a far distance," Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Martinez said.
The train carrying 51 passengers was heading from Ventura County to Los Angeles. The stretch of track 65 miles from Los Angeles where the collision occurred was straight, and that allowed the conductor to see the truck on the tracks and begin braking, fire officials said.
A Ventura County fire official told Fox News that the driver of the tractor trailer survived the crash and fled the scene. He was apprehended less than a mile from the crash site, the official said.
The collision toppled three passenger cars. A fourth car is derailed but remains upright, along with the engine. The scene is in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
A news helicopter is showing firefighters treating numerous people at the scene. Tarps were lying on the street and firefighters were treating victims. Little was left of the truck but scorched and mangled wreckage -- some debris was in a nearby intersection and some close to the tracks.
Metrolink's website says the train was on a run from Ventura County to Los Angeles.
Emergency vehicles could be seen treating some passengers at the scene, while other passengers could be seen being wheeled on stretchers.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in 2008, a train traveling on the same route was involved in a crash that killed 25 and injured 135.
The National Transportation Safety board announced it was sending a team to investigate the crash.
Source: foxnews.com
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At least 51 people were injured, including four critically, Tuesday morning when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on the tracks in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.
Oxnard police Sgt. Denise Shadinger said the crash was reported at 5:44 a.m. Shadinger said the truck became fully engulfed in flames. Authorities are describing the scene as a multi-casualty incident.
Authorities at a morning news conference said many of the victims were treated for head and extremity injuries. The train, which has a cruising speed of about 79 miles per hour, was traveling 'significantly' slower at the time of impact, an official said.
"The conductor noticed the car early and established emergency protocol. He anticipated the crash from a far distance," Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Martinez said.
The train carrying 51 passengers was heading from Ventura County to Los Angeles. The stretch of track 65 miles from Los Angeles where the collision occurred was straight, and that allowed the conductor to see the truck on the tracks and begin braking, fire officials said.
A Ventura County fire official told Fox News that the driver of the tractor trailer survived the crash and fled the scene. He was apprehended less than a mile from the crash site, the official said.
The collision toppled three passenger cars. A fourth car is derailed but remains upright, along with the engine. The scene is in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
A news helicopter is showing firefighters treating numerous people at the scene. Tarps were lying on the street and firefighters were treating victims. Little was left of the truck but scorched and mangled wreckage -- some debris was in a nearby intersection and some close to the tracks.
Metrolink's website says the train was on a run from Ventura County to Los Angeles.
Emergency vehicles could be seen treating some passengers at the scene, while other passengers could be seen being wheeled on stretchers.
The National Transportation Safety board announced it was sending a team to investigate the crash.
Source: foxnews.com
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By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and TAMI ABDOLLAH
The Associated Press
OXNARD, CALIFORNIA
A commuter train slammed into a truck abandoned on the
tracks early Tuesday, sending three rail cars tumbling onto their sides and
injuring 28 people in the fiery crash in California.
The accident occurred around 5:45 a.m. about 65 miles
northwest of Los Angeles. Four people, including the train engineer, had
critical injuries.
The truck driver was found several miles away, and
authorities were questioning him about why the vehicle was left on the tracks.
Glenn Frisbie was driving to work and sitting at an
intersection about a block away when the train struck the truck.
"I saw a bright flash, a big fireball and flames,
flames going pretty high," he said.
Little was left of the truck except scorched and mangled
wreckage, with some debris found in a nearby intersection and some close to the
tracks.
"When the crews arrived on scene, it was in flames, the
vehicle, and it was pretty much cut in half," Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief
Sergio Martinez said.
The Metrolink train carrying 48 passengers and three crew
members was heading from Ventura County to Los Angeles. The injured people were
taken to several hospitals.
The locomotive, which was pushing the train from the back,
was upright. The stretch of track is straight and that allowed the conductor to
see the truck and begin braking, Martinez said.
The train typically would be accelerating out of the Oxnard
station at about 55 mph, Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said. With braking,
he estimated it would have hit the truck at between 40 mph and 55 mph.
The crossing had arm gates, signal lights and a center
median, said Francisco Castillo, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, which
owns the tracks.
Johnson said initial reports from the scene indicated the
arms and lights were working.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal
Railroad Administration were sending investigators to the scene of the crash.
None of the rail cars crumpled, and that likely explains why
there weren't more serious injuries. That's the aim of "collision energy
management technology," which disperses energy from the impact, instead of
allowing it to concentrate inside the cars, Johnson said.
Metrolink invested heavily in such technology following
other major crashes on its lines over the past decade.
Twenty-five people were killed on Sept. 12, 2008, when a
Metrolink commuter train struck a Union Pacific freight train head-on in the
San Fernando Valley community of Chatsworth. More than 100 people were hurt in
one of the worst railroad accidents in U.S. history.
Federal investigators later concluded that the Metrolink
engineer had been texting moments before the crash and ran a red light.
In 2005, 11 people were killed and about 180 were injured
when a man who later claimed he was suicidal parked his SUV on tracks in
suburban Glendale and fled before an oncoming Metrolink train struck it and
derailed, hitting a second Metrolink train.
In 2002, two people were killed and 270 injured when a
Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train ran a red signal light and crashed
into a stopped Metrolink train in the Orange County community of Placentia. Of
the injured, 162 were sent to hospitals.
Associated Press writers John Antczak, Justin Pritchard and
Sue Manning contributed from Los Angeles. Amy Taxin contributed from Tustin,
California, and Alina Hartounian contributed from Phoenix.
Copyright The Associated Press