LOS ANGELES // A commuter train engineer who went through a red light, was blamed for America's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years, said Metrolink. Friday's collision with a freight train killed 25 people and left such a mass of smouldering, twisted metal that it took nearly a day to recover all the bodies. A preliminary investigation found that "it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at a red signal and that was the probable cause" of the collision in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell.
"When two trains are in the same place at the same time somebody's made a terrible mistake," said Ms Tyrrell, who was near tears as she spoke with reporters yesterday. The engineer was among the dead, said National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Kitty Higgins. No name had been released late yesterday. Many of the 25 people killed had been in the front car of the Metrolink train, which was crushed like an accordion in the wreck. A total of 135 people were injured, with 81 transported to hospitals in serious or critical condition. There was no overall condition update available yesterday, but a telephone survey of five hospitals found nine of 34 patients still critical. Many were described as having crush injuries.
Fireman Searcy Jackson III, a 20-year veteran and one of the first to pull bodies from the wreckage, said he had never seen such devastation. Mr Jackson, 50, said his team pulled one living passenger from the train and cut the mangled metal to remove about a half-dozen bodies. "We saw bodies where the metal had been pushed together and ... we cut them out piece by piece. They were trapped in the metal," said Mr Jackson, who was back at the scene yesterday afternoon. Firemen who extricated the dead from the wreck were rotated in and out of the scene to prevent emotional exhaustion.
"There are some things we are trained for, there are some things I don't care what kind of training you have, you don't always prepare for," said fire capt Armando Hogan. "This situation, particularly early on, with people inside the train, with the injuries, and with people moaning and crying and screaming, it was a traumatic experience." The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 152m-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park. There is a siding at one end of the tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.
"Even if the train is on the main track, it must go through a series of signals and each one of the signals must be obeyed," Ms Tyrrell said. "What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident. "We don't know how the error happened," she said, adding that Metrolink determined the cause by reviewing dispatch records and computers. Ms Higgins, of the NTSB, which is leading the investigation, said her agency is waiting to complete its investigation before making any statements about the cause of the accident.
Some were puzzled, even dubious, that Metrolink pointed the finger at the engineer so quickly. "It is a rush to judgment," said Ray Garcia, who until 2006 was a conductor on the same Metrolink 111 train. Mr Garcia, who now works for Amtrak, ticked off several scenarios in which initial evidence could turn out to be misleading, such as if a central computer showed that a signal was red when on the tracks it was not. "Just because Metrolink says it was the fault of the engineer, it doesn't mean it's true," said Mr Garcia, who knew the engineer through work. "It's just way too early in the game to point the finger."
Los Angeles county supervisor and Metrolink board member Don Knabe also said it was premature to blame the engineer. "There could always be a technical malfunction where ... there was a green light both ways," he said. The NTSB hopes to complete its final report within a year. Ms Tyrrell said Metrolink was stepping ahead of the agency with its findings because "we want to have an honest dialogue with our community."
Ms Higgins said rescue crews recovered two data recorders from the Metrolink train yesterday 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 Metrolink train, heading from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County, was carrying 220 passengers, one engineer and one conductor when it collided with the Union Pacific freight, with a crew of three, about 4.30pm on Friday. It is common in California for freight and commuter trains to use one track. The crash forced the Metrolink engine well back into the first passenger car, and both toppled over. Two other passenger cars remained upright. The passenger train was believed to have been travelling about 64 kph. * AP
