L.A. Train Wreckage Search Ends; 25 Dead

Nation's Deadliest Rail Disaster In 15 Years Blamed On Engineer Error

(CBS/ AP)  Authorities say they've finished the grim search for victims of the Los Angeles commuter train collision and the death toll stands at 25.

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.

She said the engineer worked for a subcontractor, Veolia, used by Metrolink since 1998, but had driven Metrolink trains since 1996. She said she didn't know if the engineer ever had any previous problems operating trains or had any disciplinary issues.

CBS 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.

[mainemade]

Oh here we go again... Terrible trajedy turns into huge political he said/she said schoolyard fight. Politics had absolutely NOTHING to do with this terrible accident. This train wreck was death by cell phone! If your driving anything, leave the *** cell phone alone or you may be the next one being stupid and taking other people out with you....

[txgrouch2006]

old people are unfit to be leaders.
Posted by FRIGGINNUTZ3 at 12:53 PM : Sep 14, 2008

I think I agree, if "old" means being born in 1946.

[frigginnutz3]

Its the leaders of our country. There all to old, old people are unfit to be leaders.

[txgrouch2006]

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

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...

[txgrouch2006]

Do you REALLY think management picks the BEST qualified person for a job?

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...

[txgrouch2006]

This accident sounds like Hazelwood all over again.
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.

[jude1957]

My heart goes out to all the families related to passengers even the engineer''s family. Whatever the reason it is a sad event and hopefully someone can step up and start random drug tests based on some of the comments about witnessing engineers snorting coke. I dated a pilot for 2 years and can tell you he drank with other pilots before flying the planes. Something has to done and yesterday is not fast enough.

[txgrouch2006]

In European countries freight does not share the rails with commuter traffic. The U.S. has an archaic and deadly infrastructure. We, once a leader of shamefully behind progressing nations around the world.
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.

[txgrouch2006]

How much did Clinton care about the infrastructure? How much did Clinton care about alternate energy sources while people were driving Hummers and monster SUV''s? How much did Clinton care about the deregulation of the home mortgage industry, so shortly after the savings and loan failures of the 1980''s due to similar lack of regulation???

YAH, we all know what CLINTON cared about...

[txgrouch2006]

Then came Clinton''s re-election bit. Texas became the ONLY state to vote for Dole.

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.

[hissteps4u]

Think about it the infrastructure has not had a Major over haul in over 50 years. Roads in general are horriable and train traffic is abismal costly to maintain and poorly kept up to minimal standards.

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....

[cam9457]

I am thinking about what I just said. I''''m thinking about what I saw and what I heard while hauling coke heads, too. The engineer I saw snorting in the back of the van was on the way to work that morning. Maybe people you work with don''''t use cocaine, although I seriously doubt that, but almost all of the ones I hauled did and they talked about it while in the van like I wasn''''t even there.
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?

[rational_1]

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?
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.

[cam9457]

I use to drive a van, hauling railroad workers from point A to point B when they were out of hours. I hauled conductors, engineers and brakemen. I met only a few of them who did not use cocaine. I even saw one of them take a snort in the back of the van. One guy said, "You can''''t snort too much coke." They talked about it like it was no big deal. That''''s probably what caused this wreck. The conductor and engineer were probably snorting in the cabin.

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

[cam9457]

The video they mentioned having would have been on the freight train, it''s called "RailView". The freight RR''s use it to prove negligence on the part of motorist''s in grade crossing accidents. It is required by federal law in all newer freight locomotives and should show at the moment before impact if the engineer of the commuter was holding a cell phone or not or whatever was going on. Every locomotive also has a "black box" that is the same thing found in aircraft that records everything going on with the locomotive, if air brakes were applied and how much, speed, if the emergency brake was applied, dynamic braking and other things useful to investigators after a wreck along with the rail view footage. It''s a shame that it always takes the loss of life for things to change. I recently got into a heated argument with some of my companies officials about a rail bridge that connects Philadelphia to Camden NJ. The bridge was built around a hundred years ago and has been deemed condemed, but my company just knows it cheaper to pay the fine each time we bring the deadlist chemicals known to man kind by the billions of gallons at a time over the bridge than to stop using the bridge and fix it. The bridge was NEVER intended to hold anywhere near the amount of weight of a freight train. The list goes on and on, I wish I worked for the F.R.A.

[eggy1620]

Another train wreck is happening right now. At the Colluseum.

[bdrlnt4rl]

Also the company should be to blame if they do not put conductors in the engine with the engineer! It is a two man job, 4 eyes working together, 2 brains and 4 ears, to do a job that will save lives. Dont blame the engineer if he was alone, blame the company for not hiring enough staff to man the trains!

[txgrouch2006]

Meanwhile in Linfen, China - a landslide of iron ore waste from an illegal mine has buried AN ENTIRE VILLAGE and killed 254 people.

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.

[txgrouch2006]

Have you considered the possibility that he may have had a heart attack, stroke or been incapacitated in some other way and that this is not negligence, but just a tragedy all around?
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.

[cam9457]

It''s a shame that the "people puller" trains don''t have the same rules as those on freight trains. I work for a class 1 freight railroad and our rules stipulate there must always be at least two crew members aboard our trains, two sets of eyes seeing every signal and having to call them out on the radio every time. Just makes me wonder why engineers hauling the most precious cargo(human life) don''t have to have a conductor in the cab as do freight trains? But, that won''t be for long either as the freight carriers are fighting to remove the conductor from freight trains as well, one less set of eyes...
My thoughts are with the families of this tradegy