10 Killed in Suburban L.A. Train Crash
By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer
GLENDALE, Calif. - A commuter train smashed into an SUV left on the tracks by a suicidal man early Wednesday, sending the train careening off the rails in a wreck that killed 10 people and injured about 200, authorities said. Dozens of the injured were in critical condition.
After the Metrolink train hit the SUV, it derailed and crashed with another train going in the opposite direction. Both trains landed on their sides, sending passengers tumbling down the aisles, authorities said.
The SUV driver changed his mind about suicide and left the vehicle before it was hit, Police Chief Randy Adams said. The man will be charged with homicide, he said.
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," Adams told a news conference at the scene of mangled railcars in the suburb north of downtown Los Angeles. "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 man, identified as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 26, of Compton, stood by as the train hit the SUV, Adams said. Alvarez had also tried to slash his wrists and stabbed himself, authorities said.
"There is no terrorism or terrorist act involved," Adams said.
It was the worst rail accident in the United States since March 15, 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.
Firefighters picked through twisted wreckage and carried injured passengers from the trains to a triage center set up in a nearby parking lot.
One commuter train was headed from Los Angeles' Union Station to downtown Burbank, and the other was bound to Union Station from Moorpark, Metrolink officials said. The accident happened a little after 6 a.m.
"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half, it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."
In a light rain, firefighters climbed ladders into windows of a battered train tipped onto its side.
Nearly 300 firefighters were at the scene and 35 ambulances were taking injured passengers to hospitals, officials said.
Dazed passengers, some limping, gathered at tables in a nearby store, while the injured sprawled on color-coded mats in the parking lot: red for those with severe injuries, green for those less seriously harmed.
One of the dead passengers was identified as Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles County sheriff's department.
As the cars tumbled off the tracks, one of the Metrolink trains struck a parked Union Pacific locomotive, tipping it onto its side, said Kathryn Blackwell, a railroad spokeswoman in Omaha, Neb.
George Touma, 19, of Burbank, said he was called by his mother, who was on one of the Metrolink trains.
"She told me she was bleeding in the head and her arm was really hurting," said Touma, who was searching for her. "I'm really worried because she has vertigo and when I tried to call back she wouldn't answer."
Metrolink began service in 1992 and operates seven lines, part of a multibillion-dollar transportation network aimed at reducing pollution and congestion in Southern California.
On Jan. 6, a freight train derailed at Graniteville, S.C., sending up a toxic cloud of chlorine gas from a damaged tank car. Nine people were killed, 250 were injured and thousands were forced to evacuate their homes.
