Deadly California Train Collision

A mile-long freight train struck a commuter train head-on south of Los Angeles, killing two and injuring at least 260, officials said.

The northbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train hit the southbound Metrolink train at 8:10 a.m. PDT, Tuesday morning, buckling and derailing two cars packed with passengers, authorities and witnesses said.

"There was a silence and he was yelling, 'Everybody get down, get down!' I thought maybe there was a bomb on board. ... Then all of a sudden we hit," passenger Jim Fleming said.

"The train stopped for a couple seconds. The freight train just hit us," passenger Scott Wilson said. "For me I was facing backward, Maybe that's how I ended up being OK."

Jackie Bissezie saw the crash while she was pumping gas at a nearby station, about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

"I heard the horn. I saw the train coming toward it. I said, 'Oh my God! It's on the same track! It's going to hit; it's going to hit!' We all started running forward," she said.

Firefighters, some using ladders, helped passengers out of the derailed two-decker Metrolink train and treated the most seriously injured in a triage area. All area hospitals were put on alert.

Officials said 162 people were taken to hospitals; 19 were reported to have serious injuries.

"We also have walking wounded who self-rescued themselves from the train," fire spokesman Dennis Shell said.

The Sheriff's Department said two were killed not three as previously feared - one victim was counted twice.

Robert Kube, 59, of Moreno Valley died at the scene. Another passenger, a 48-year-old man, died at a hospital. His name was not immediately released.

Up to 300 people were aboard the commuter train, Metrolink spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said. It was the worst accident in the nine-year history of Metrolink, which carries 32,000 passengers on 128 trains daily across the greater Los Angeles region.

The freight was en route from Los Angeles to Clovis, N.M., said Richard Russack, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe. It carried 67 loaded containers.

A source from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. which operates the freight train, said dispatch tapes showed the train, which weighs more than 6,000 tons, was traveling at 10 mph at the time of impact and its engineer may have tried to use the brakes just before the crash.

The source, who did not want to be identified, said: "At that much weight and tonnage 10 miles per hour is devastating."

Commuter officials say their train was where it should have been for that time of the morning and among other things, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes, investigators will focus on the role of the train dispatchers.

Passenger Kim Bailey also recalled the train coming to a halt just prior to the collision about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

"I was thrown forward onto my knees with my face into the seat, and I was just confused. I just saw darkness and I didn't know what happened," Bailey said.

The commuter train was traveling from Riverside to San Juan Capistrano on a route that serves 3,000 passengers each day. The Metrolink train had left the west Corona station and was scheduled to stop at the Anaheim Canyon station.

Several streets in the area were closed because of the wreckage and the length of the freight train. It was carrying dozens of cars.

Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, said the railroad owns and maintains the stretch of rail where the collision occurred. The BNSF runs 55 freight trains a day along the line, which connects Los Angeles and Chicago.

Metrolink trains travel at 44 mph on average, weigh 450 tons and take one-third of a mile to stop, according to the commuter rail system.

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators from Washington, to determine the cause of the crash, the nation's second serious rail accident in less than a week.

On Thursday, the Amtrak Auto Train derailed in northern Florida, killing four people. Officials are still investigating the cause of the crash and the engineer's claim that he braked after seeing misaligned tracks ahead.