A freight train collided with a rush-hour commuter train in suburban Los Angeles San Fernando Valley on Friday evening, killing at least 15 passengers and dozens were injured. The crash was the worst in recent history in southern California.
Firefighters frantically worked to extract injured passengers as a fire burned under the car of the Metrolink commuter train. The Los Angeles Times reported today that more than 135 people were injured.
The violent crash happened just after 4:30 PM in the Chatsworth area of the famous San Fernando Valley, northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The engine of the freight train, resting along a 90-degree curve along the track, appeared smashed beyond recognition.
The Metrolink train originated in Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and was headed to suburban Moorpark. The crash occurred near an elementary school, and witnesses ran to the area to assist firefighters.
Prior to this incident, the most deadly crash in the history of the Metrolink, the regional rail services for Southern California, was in 2005, near Glendale, in which 11 people died after two trains collided with a Union Pacific freight train. The crash occurred when one train hit a Jeep Cherokee abandoned on the tracks by Juan Manuel Alverez, who said he had planned to commit suicide but changed his mind. Prosecutors charged him with 11 counts of murder, and Alvarez was convicted last June.
Kevin Roderick has a partial list of the deceased on LAObserved and a story regarding the engineer sending a text message prior to the crash. Video's in tribute to the engineer have been removed from YouTube for unknown reasons by the teenagers the engineer had texted.
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