[modeleng] Man Faces Charges in Metrolink Collision
- From: "Bob Logan" <boblogan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Tony Wells" <oaksfield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Terry Lane" <tel@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Steven G James" <sgjames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Sunnyfield Railway" <trainrides@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Phill Smith" <steam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "John Wall" <john.wall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "John Burridge" <john.burridge@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Jim Savage" <jsgun44m@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Jeff Dayman" <jeffdayman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Howard Stockard" <c48creek@xxxxxxxxx>, "Dennis Dalla-Vicenza" <trainz@xxxxxxx>, "Dave Beaman" <davebeaman@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Charles Brumbelow" <cbrumbelow@xxxxxxxx>, "Brad Smith" <corlissbs@xxxxxxx>, "Alan J Stepney" <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Model Engineering General" <modeleng1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:18:12 +1300
Man Faces Charges in Metrolink CollisionVia Bob in New Zealand
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12:22 PM PST, January 26, 2005 E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed
Man Faces Charges in Metrolink Collision
a.. One of the trains hits a car police say was deliberately parked on
the tracks and then hits a second train.
Metrolink Information
If you had a family member on Metrolink trains 901 or 100, call
(877) 883-0364 for information.
All trains on the Ventura County and Antelope Valley lines for
today have been canceled.
Family pick-up location: Glendale Police Community Room
131 North Isabel Street, Glendale.
(818) 550-6514
Glendale Memorial Hospital:
818-520-1900
Metrolink commuter info:
(800) 371-LINK or (800) 371-5465
www.metrolinktrains.com
(may be down due to heavy traffic)
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Man Faces Charges in Metrolink Collision
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By Michael Muskal and Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writers
At least 10 people died and nearly 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 including seat cushions, bloody towels and luggage discarded by fleeing
passengers littered the area.
A southbound commuter train heading to downtown Los Angeles hit the Jeep
Grand Cherokee parked on the tracks, said Glendale Police Chief Randy G. Adams.
The train then apparently crashed into a northbound Metrolink commuter train
and a Union Pacific freight train was hit and derailed, officials said. The
investigation was continuing.
"This is now a homicide investigation," Adams said, adding that police
had taken a man into custody. Adams identified the suspect as Juan Manuel
Alvarez of Compton. He said Alvarez had attempted suicide before.
Alvarez was detained at the scene and appeared to be uninjured. He told
police he had left the vehicle and watched the derailment, Adams said. He was
also identified by witnesses at the scene.
Alvarez was booked on 10 counts of murder, Adams said. The suspect was
distraught and remorseful and was being held on a suicide watch. He had
superficial self-inflicted wounds that were treated, the chief said.
Alvarez, who will celebrate his 26th birthday on Feb. 26, had prior drug
arrests, Adams said.
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was
suicidal," the chief told reporters.
"I think his intent at that time was to take his own life, but changed
his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle," the chief said.
"He exited the vehicle and stood by as the southbound Metrolink train struck
his vehicle, causing the train to derail and strike the northbound train."
Glendale Mayor Bob Yousefian said that Juan Alvarez "kind of ran, tried
to hide, but because of his previous injuries, he got apprehended."
When asked why Alvarez was in Glendale, the mayor responded, "He came to
Glendale to commit suicide."
Officials described the incident as the worst local rail disaster in
recent memory.
A National Transportation Safety Board team was headed to the scene. The
Glendale Police Department was leading the criminal investigation, with LAPD
and the Sheriff's Department assisting.
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 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.
Three LAPD employees were hospitalized and one was unaccounted for,
Bratton said.
The death toll steadily climbed as the sun rose. By 10:30 a.m. the count
hit 10. Fire officials said 123 people were treated and transported to 13 area
hospitals. About 60 people were treated at the scene and released. Most of the
injured were treated in the light rain at a triage center established in a
nearby Costco parking lot.
A Glendale Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said that at least five patients
were considered critical.
Television stations showed hundreds of tons of wreckage from the commuter
trains and officials reported traffic delays throughout the area. The commute
on the Ventura and Antelope Valley lines was disrupted indefinitely as
officials used buses to transport commuters between Union Station and the
Burbank station.
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. Officials said the
trains usually carried 200 to 250 passengers. The top speed is 79 mph, though
the trains were believed to be traveling at less than the maximum.
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.
Goddard Paialii, 53, of Woodland Hills, a communications electrician for
the city of Los Angeles, said he boarded the train in Chatsworth and rode in
the lead car. He was upstairs and said he was trying to nap, listening to his
I-Pod.
After the crash, the train "appeared to be dragging whatever it hit. At
that point, I just braced myself. Computers, seat pads, briefcases were flying
all over. There was lots of smoke in the car."
But the exodus remained orderly.
"Everybody was trying to help everybody else get out," Paialii said. "The
train I was in was entirely ripped out. We went out through a gaping hole,"
Paialii said.
He stepped over a woman who complained of back and neck injuries and said
she did not want to move. He carried one injured man to a fence nearby.
Cathie Fransen, 57 was riding with her friend Ken Milds, 55, in the
middle car. Fransen said she has ridden the train regularly for 12 1/2 years
and was in the aisle seat, second floor, middle car. She does community
relations for IBM in Glendale.
"It was very terrifying. We had seconds to think about what was going
on," she said.
After the derailment, as the cars skidded, she said it felt like "it kept
going and going. We were holding our breath."
The entire wreck of all three trains was contained between a gray
warehouse and the brick wall of Costco. A single train car was propped at an
almost perfect 45-degree angle from the tracks, a signal bridge crumpled over
it, its upper corner resting lightly on the tracks. The car in front of it,
still attached, was tilted at about an 80-degree angle, its wheels still just
barely resting on the track.
And to the south a third car lay fully on its side, back right corner a
mess of debris. An engine and a Metrolink car to the south remained on the
tracks upright and relatively untouched, but behind these another attached car
stood upright but almost at right angles across the track.
All along the ground, large metal pieces of the side of the train and
gray upholstered seats were scattered like discarded food wrappers. On the
train cars, windows gaped or were shattered in their frames.
Each of the cars by midmorning were scribbled with neon orange spray
paint from the firefighters, who had numbered them. On the warehouse behind the
train people gathered to look down on the wreckage.
The accident occurred just north of the 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.
Inside the store, passengers were processed by officials trying to
account for everyone on board. Once done, the commuters filed out and sat on
white picnic benches in front of a snack stand.
An hour after the crash, crews worked on the wreckage as about 50
passengers waited nearby.
They sat in work clothes with tags around their neck: Name, Age,
Condition.
One firefighter walked among the walking wounded shouting: "Who needs to
go to the hospital? Who needs to go to the hospital?"
A few people raised their hands.
Then firefighters went person to person asking if anything else was
needed and how they were feeling.
Staff writers Peter Hong, Jill Leovy, David Pierson and Erica Williams
contributed to this report.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives.
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Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
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