In our last post we discussed a serious mass transit accident which occured when a truck ran the cross-arms of a railroad crossing and was struck by a commuter train containing 169 people. The passengers described the horrible feeling they had when the accident occurred, derailing half of the train’s cars.
Another commuter train vs. truck accident occurred this weekend in northern Los Angeles County according to the Associated Press. News reports indicate that this train was full of 220 passengers when it hit a truck stalled on the tracks around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. Three of the train passengers were hurt and rushed to area hospitals. Metrolink provided bus service to shuttle the other train passengers to their destinations.
The truck apparently was towing new Lexus cars and had gotten lost when the crash occurred. The truckers were attempting to turn the rig around at the time of the crash and the driver fled the cab before the train crashed into it.
The last Metrolink crash occurred in August near Camarillo. Two people were injured in that crash which occurred because a flatbed truck failed to yield to the train. A major Metrolink crash also occurred in 2008, killing 25 people and injuring 135 others. That accident was blamed to a texting train engineer.
Source: Associated Press, “Train hits truck in LA County, 3 people injured,” Oct. 7, 2012
