L.A. Train Wreckage Search Ends; 25 Dead
Nation's Deadliest Rail Disaster In 15 Years Blamed On Engineer Error
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Play CBS Video Video More Dead In L.A. Train Wreck Additional bodies continue to be found in the wreckage of a collision between a freight train and a commuter train filled with passengers. As Sandra Hughes reports, the engineer may be at fault.
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Los Angeles Police officers carry a victim of a train accident in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)
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Rescuers remove a victim with a gurney attached to an aerial ladder as others continue rescue efforts after a MetroLink commuter train collided with a freight train in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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Train cars are seen overturned after an accident between a Union Pacific and Metrolink Amtrak train collision on Sept. 12, 2008 in Chatsworth, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark Davis)
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Emergency responders remove a body from the Metrolink commuter train that collided with a Union Pacific freight train Friday in Chatsworth, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Rene Macura)
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Interactive Danger on the Tracks Notable U.S. train wrecks of the past 150 years and statistics about recent track-caused train accidents.
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Timeline Train Disasters Explosions, collisions and derailments cause some of the world's worst train travel tragedies.
It took nearly a day to sift through the mangled remains of a commuter train that collided head-on with a freight train Friday. About 135 people were injured in the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years.
The death toll stood at 24 after the search ended but one critically injured passenger, described as a 50-year-old man, later died in the hospital. Authorites expect that the death toll may rise even further as several other victims are in critical condition.
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 Friday's collision with a freight train in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said. She said she believes the engineer, whose name was not released, is dead.
"When two trains are in the same place at the same time somebody's made a terrible mistake," said Tyrrell, who was shaking and near tears as she spoke with reporters.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Saturday that the search for bodies had ended.
Of the 135 injured, 81 were transported to hospitals in serious or critical condition. A telephone survey of five hospitals conducted before the death of the 25th victim found nine of 34 patients still critical. Many were described as having crush injuries.
"Words can't explain or in any way console those who have lost loved ones, those who at this moment still don't know what the condition or status of their loved ones is," Villaraigosa said at a news conference. "I can only tell you that these firefighters and police officers have worked feverishly through the night."
Injured people scrambled to reach family members while others helped the injured, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes. And a priest who was on the train stood vigil over the dying, giving some last rites.
While Metrolink has accepted responsibility, the National Transportation Safety Board says it has recovered the data recorders form the trains and one video recorder and will continue to investigate the cause of the crash, reports Hughes.
The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-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, Tyrrell said.
"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," Tyrrell told reporters. "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 continued, "but this is what we believe happened. We believe it was our engineer who failed to stop at the signal."
Tyrrell said Metrolink determined the cause by reviewing dispatch records and computers.
It's the worst feeling in the world because you know what you're going to find. You have to put aside the fact that it's someone's husband, daughter or friend.
Fire Capt. Alex ArriolaCBS station KCBS-TV in Los Angeles is reporting that the passenger train engineer may have sent a text message to a friend approximately one minute prior to the crash.
Ray Garcia, a train conductor with Metrolink until 2006, said he knew the engineer involved in the crash for nine years and called him qualified and talented. He declined to name the engineer.
"I'm very sad that that happened," Garcia said. "It's terrible."
Garcia said he knows the stretch of track where the collision occurred and believes engineers are warned twice with yellow lights before reaching a red light at the end of a siding.
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 4:30 p.m. 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.
By late Saturday morning, the Metrolink engine had been pulled out of the mangled passenger car, which was raised by a crane and surrounded by tarps. Bulldozers pulled away chunks of metal.
Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said his firefighters had never seen such carnage.
"It's the worst feeling in the world because you know what you're going to find," said fire Capt. Alex Arriola, who had crawled into the bottom of the smashed passenger car. "You have to put aside the fact that it's someone's husband, daughter or friend."
Police set up what they called a unification center at a local high school to try to connect worried people with information about friends or relatives who they believed were aboard the train.
Families of eight of the dead had been notified and two women who were pronounced dead at hospitals were unidentified, coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.
Worried relatives and friends gathered at nearby Chatsworth High School to wait for news as rescue workers delicately dismantled the passenger car.
"That was her train and she's not home," said Debra Nieves said of her sister, Donna Remata, 49. "But until I find out for sure that they found her, I'm not going to leave."
Firefighters were rotated in and out of the scene to prevent emotional exhaustion, Hogan said.
"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," Hogan said. "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."
Metrolink launched its service in Southern California in 1992. More than 45,000 commuters board Metrolink trains weekdays in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Until Friday, Metrolink's worst disaster was on Jan. 26, 2005, in suburban Glendale, where a man parked a gasoline-soaked SUV on railroad tracks. A Metrolink train struck the SUV and derailed, striking another Metrolink train traveling the other way, killing 11 people and injuring about 180 others. Juan Alvarez was convicted this year of murder for causing the crash.
Friday's train crash was the deadliest since Sept. 22, 1993, when an Amtrak train plunged off a trestle into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., moments after the trestle was damaged by a towboat; 47 people were killed.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 37 CommentsPosted by FRIGGINNUTZ3 at 12:53 PM : Sep 14, 2008
I think I agree, if "old" means being born in 1946.
Posted by Voltaire777 at 12:15 PM : Sep 14, 2008
In China, a three-story wall of iron ore sludge from an illegal mine buried the village of Yunhe and killed over 150 people.
So, are you saying we''re getting more like China every day?
Globalization at work. The Wal-Mart effect. It doesn''t go away just because you left the Wal-Mart parking lot...
NO!!! Anyone who has hear the word "overqualified" knows that THEY DON''T.
They prefer to pick the applicant who is JUST BARELY qualified or even MARGINALLY UNQUALIFIED. Then they say "We picked you because this job will be a challenge for you, a real opportunity to learn something new and expand your abilities!" Sounds like such fun...
Really, what they want is someone who says "What? They picked ME?!? But I''m not really qualified. Hoo boy, how lucky I am to get this job. I''d better DO WHATEVER THE BOSS TELLS ME, I might not be lucky enough to get another job like this."
Then the boss, KNOWING ALL THIS, proceeds to tell the newhire to do ALL KINDS OF THINGS WRONG, some of them ILLEGAL, and fully intends to coerce the newhire past any reluctance by reminding him of how "lucky" he was to get this job. The boss says, "Maybe we made a mistake hiring you. Maybe it''s time to sort through the stack or resumes of OTHER applicants who were standing in line for this job..."
GET THE PICTURE???
Now imagine how they hire RAILROAD ENGINEERS...
Posted by txgrouch2006 at 11:44 AM : Sep 14, 2008
This accident was the result of more than one person''''s error. You don''''t trust this many lives to th alertness of one employee -- no fail safes were in place apparently because no one with any competence was in charge. What a disgrace. I don''''t remember hearing about any bonehead mistakes like this from France or Canada.
Posted by Voltaire777 at 12:15 PM : Sep 14, 2008
That''s EXACTLY what happened with Hazelwood. His management KNEW he had substance abuse issues. He had been through rehab. BUT THEY KEPT HIM IN THE WHEELHOUSE OF THE EXXON VALDEZ instead of moving him to duties where he could do less harm.
It''s ALWAY ultimately the responsibility of management. THEY''RE THE ONES WHO PUT THE MAN IN THE CRATE.
They''re the ones who built the crate.
It''s the man that matters. And management builds the system and picks the man to put in it.
Posted by wjksea at 10:07 PM : Sep 13, 2008
What would that solve? We''d just have passenger trains crashing into passenger trains.
The Exxon Valdez didn''t collide with a freight train. It''s not the crate, it''s the man in the crate that matters.
Until our society becomes leadable again, we will continue to see disaster after disaster caused by selfish, irresponsible indivuduals like the ones who KEPT Joseph Hazelwood in the wheelhouse of one of the biggest oil tankers in the world operating in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the world.
PLUS he is a Baby Boomer.
This accident sounds like Hazelwood all over again.
YAH, we all know what CLINTON cared about...
And then, out of the blue, the EPA withdrew the environmental approval for the Highway 6 construction project. They cited concerns over wetlands.
Project officials were willing to cooperate with whatever new requirements the EPA would make.
THE EPA REPLIED THAT THEY HAD NOT DEFINED WHAT THE PROJECT WOULD NEED TO DO TO GET APPROVED TO RESUME. And furthermore THE EPA ANNOUNCED THAT IT HAD NO PLANS TO DECIDE WHAT NEW REQUIREMENT THERE MIGHT BE.
So that was it. The EPA would not even TELL THEM what to do to continue construction. The whole project was shut down. The workers were laid off. We spent the next four years driving on temporary blacktop roads. The road was in EVEN WORSE condition that it was when the project started.
AND THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION DID THE SAME THING TO TWO OTHER HIGHWAY MODERNIZATION PROJECTS IN TEXAS.
Finally, when Clinton left office and Bush became President, the Highway 6 project was finished. Highway 6 is now a modern divided multi-lane highway with overpasses instead of grade-level crossings. There''s even an overpass over the railroad tracks at Arcola.
And Bush also raised the national speed limit to 70 mph, so we could actually GET SOMEWHERE.
It is high time for America to once again reinvent itself if the dammmm Politicians can get over themselves and do something for the good of all rather than the constant bickering and infighting which is all washington is any more with its two party crapola.
It is a pitty the public does not have the true grit to truly bring and force change in washington which needs change so badly.
America is sinking slowly in its own cess pool....
If we are involved in a rail accident and drugs are found in our system we are personaly held to criminal charges, and I agree with this policy. drug testing is done randomly by the company as well as the FRA. On average I get it 3-5 times a year. Watch what you say as far as acussing the engineer of being high. Secondly, you saw this man use drugs and said nothing and let him operate a freight train?
Posted by txgrouch2006 at 08:20 PM : Sep 13, 2008
You''re right - and I agree with you that more than one person should be up in front on these trains. I was just making the point that it''s much too early to vilify the engineer who drove this train. He may be to blame, but let''s get the facts first before crucifying him. Remember that his family lost one of their own as well.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My industry does have one of the most strict zero tolerence policies of any transportation industry. Think about what you just said and try to use your head, if I''m a conductor and I''m in between freight cars I''m I going to trust my life with someone on drugs? If a member of a train and engine crew even suspects another member of his crew may be high or drunk or whatever, he''s gone. We have families too that would like us to come home the same way we left
And stuff like that happens EVERY DAY in China.
Globalization still has a long, long way to go before it makes us the same as China. But they''re trying as hard as they can.
Posted by rational_1 at 07:53 PM : Sep 13, 2008
Which makes you wonder, just HOW SAFE is the rail system when all it takes is one incapacitated engineer to cause a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train?
As other knowledgable posters have pointed out, there ARE procedures in place to address this issue. If it wasn''t done, WHY?
CORPORATE GREED and COST-CUTTING TO SQUEEZE OUT THAT EXTRA BUCK OF PROFIT. Pure and simple.
Because that''s what it ALWAYS is.
My thoughts are with the families of this tradegy
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