More horrible deaths here in LA!.....BAD@!
Metrolink Trains Collide; at Least 10 Dead
# One of the trains hits a car illegally parked on the tracks and then hits second train.
By Michael Muskal and Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writer
At least 10 people died and 200 were injured this morning when two commuter trains collided after one hit a car parked on the tracks by a man intent on killing himself, officials said
Police said they had taken a man into custody and he was expected to be charged with homicide in connection with the chain reaction of crashes that left train cars mangled and seared in Glendale near the Los Angeles border. Debris such as seat cushions, bloody towels and luggage discarded by fleeing passengers littered the area.
A southbound commuter train heading to downtown Los Angeles hit the vehicle parked on the tracks, said Glendale Police Chief Randy G. Adams. The train then bounced into a Union Pacific freight train before crashing into a northbound commuter train, officials said.
"This is now a homicide investigation," Adams said, adding that police had taken into custody, "a deranged man who was suicidal."
Adams identified the suspect as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 26, of Compton. He said Alvarez had attempted suicide before. He was detained at the scene, where he had watched the derailment.
Alvarez was not injured and told police he had left the vehicle, Adams said.
Officials said the accident was the worst rail disaster in recent memory.
The 6 a.m. crash set off minor fires and diesel fuel spills as rescuers rushed to the scene at San Fernando Road and Chevy Chase Drive. The area is near where Burbank, Glendale and Atwater Village in Los Angeles meet.
"This is unbelievably tragic," an angry Sheriff Lee Baca told reporters at the scene. "It is a complete outrage as far as transportation safety is concerned."
At a joint news conference with Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton and Glendale's Adams, Baca recounted the police theory of the accident. Baca said he was especially angry because one of the dead was identified as Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department. He was aboard the southbound train, heading to work from Simi Valley.
The death toll steadily climbed as the sun rose. "At this point, we believe we have nine fatalities," said Los Angeles Fire Department Chief William Bamattre. "I want to stress the numbers are preliminary," he cautioned.
By 10:30 a.m. the count hit 10.
Most of the injured were treated in the light rain at a triage center established in a nearby Costco parking lot, but more than a hundred were considered serious enough to be taken to more than a dozen hospitals by at least 35 ambulances.
A Glendale Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said that at least five patients were considered critical. More were en route, she said.
Television stations showed hundreds of tons of wreckage from the commuter trains and officials reported traffic delays throughout the area.
More than 300 firefighters combed through the derailed trains looking for trapped passengers. As firefights cleared each car, they garishly marked the side giving the cars an eerie look as they formed a twisted zig-zag pattern next to the tracks.
Bamattre said at least five passes had been completed through the scene. By 9 a.m. the focus has shifted from rescue to recovery, officials said.
"It's been a nightmare," passenger Leanne Lopez told a reporter.
One Metrolink train, the 901, left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and the other, train 100, was heading into Los Angeles.
David Morrison, 47, an attorney, was heading to downtown Los Angeles on his regular morning commute. He said he that he got on train 100 at 5:19 a.m. at Simi Valley.
"I heard the crash. It sounded like the train was dragging something across the tracks," he told The Times. "There was a violent lurch and everything came to a stop."
He said the passengers fled amid the smell of diesel fumes.
The accident occurred just north of a Costco store in a shopping center on Los Feliz Boulevard, where it was drizzling and dark, witnesses said.
"We heard a loud boom and the building shook," said Jenny Doll, 30, a Costco clerk from Monterey Park.
Employees took fire extinguishers from the store shelves and ran outside to help.
"Everybody was helping and trying to get people out of the train," said Doll, who was taking food and water from the store for firefighters at the site.
Ruben Cabrera, the 37-year-old store manager, said he first thought the noise of the crash was thunder, but soon his receiving dock called and told him there had been an accident.
"It was chaos. I was trying to keep a level head, and I didn't want to lose any employees," he said.
Staff writer Peter Hong contributed to this report. |
