Metrolink Train Wreck Coverage

[LosAngeles7 0]

From the Los Angeles Times

Metrolink train crash: 18th victim found in rubble in Chatsworth

A commuter train carrying 225 slams into a freight train, leaving at least 135 injured. Rescuers continued their search early Saturday, hours after the last survivor was pulled from the wreckage.

By Garrett Therolf, Joel Rubin and Mitchell Landsberg

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

 

8:46 AM PDT, September 13, 2008

 

As the sun rose this morning on the scene of a train crash that killed at least 18 people, rescue workers used heavy machinery to untangle the twisted remains of a Metrolink passenger train in the hopes of finding more survivors.

 

"They are pulling things apart very carefully because, if there is a miracle, they don't want to undo it," said Lt. John Romero of the Los Angeles Police Department.

 

Hope for a miracle held out even though authorities said the last survivor had been pulled from the wreckage before sunset Friday, just hours after the train carrying 225 people collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train on a sharp curve in Chatsworth.

 

An 18th body -- possibly that of the freight train conductor -- was found as heavy machinery pulled apart the trains this morning.

 

Rescue teams had worked frantically overnight. More than 135 people were injured in one of the worst train crashes in Southern California history, and Metrolink officials said they could not explain why warning systems failed to prevent such a catastrophic collision.

 

Authorities said this morning that about 100 people were taken to hospitals -- 60 by ambulance and 40 by helicopter. Los Angeles City Fire Department officials said this morning that 45 people were critically injured and 40 others had suffered serious injuries. All 12 trauma centers in Los Angeles County handled patients, authorities said.

 

This morning, mobile units from coroner, police, sheriff and fire departments remained in place on the campus of a private school in Chatsworth that had been transformed into a command post and triage center in the aftermath of the collision. As the rescue and recovery effort continued, National Transportation Safety Board officials were at the scene investigating what led up to the deadly crash.

 

Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told the Associated Press that during the night teams used hydraulic jacks to keep the most badly damaged passenger car from falling over and other specialized rescue equipment to gently tear apart the metal.

 

Ruda said the goal was to eliminate every piece of metal and gradually work down into the passenger spaces. By midnight, crews were just getting through the top deck of the double-decker train.

 

"There's so much damage, we need to wait for heavier equipment," he said early this morning.

 

Hours earlier, Los Angeles City Fire Capt. John Virant, his face glistening with sweat, described the scene as "total destruction . . . chaos." "They are in there removing dead bodies that are lying on top of survivors," Virant said. In the front train carriage, he said, "it was as if somebody had just taken all the seats and thrown them in there."

 

Metrolink's Train 111, en route from Los Angeles' Union Station to Moorpark, had just left the Chatsworth station when the crash occurred at 4:23 p.m. on a 45-degree bend. The engine of the freight train embedded itself in the front Metrolink carriage as both trains derailed, sending one of the train's three cars full of homebound commuters keeling onto its side. An earsplitting concussion rocked nearby homes, followed by screams from those aboard.

 

"I saw it coming," said Eric Forbes, 56, an administrator at Cal State Northridge who was riding in the second or third car of the Metrolink train when he glanced out the window to see the freight train bearing down. He spoke later at a nearby triage center, his raspy voice swelling with emotion as he was wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance.

 

"There was no time to stop," he said. "The next thing I knew I was in a seat in front of me. It was horrible."

 

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell said officials did not yet know how the accident occurred. "Obviously two trains are not supposed to be at the same place at the same time."

 

Tom Dinger, an engineer who retired last year from Amtrak after a 43-year railroad career, said normal procedure called for the northbound passenger train to pull into a rail siding at the Chatsworth station to allow the southbound freight train to pass. He said he had steered through that stretch of track hundreds of times. Between Chatsworth and Simi Valley there is only one set of tracks because of narrow tunnels that trains use to go through the Santa Susana Pass.

 

He said he talked by telephone with Metrolink conductor Bob Hildebrand, who was injured. Hildebrand told him he was in the rear club car when the trains collided. "He told me they were going 40 mph and came to a dead stop," Dinger said.

 

Metrolink said the train's engineer, whom it did not identify, died in the crash. There was no word on the fate of the Union Pacific crew.

 

Joelle Ouellet, 38, said she was a few hundred feet away, turning around her horse on a nearby ranch, when the trains collided. "I heard a huge crash," she said. "Then I saw a fireball. I ran over there and there were people lying all over the hill."

 

As the rescue effort swung into full gear, yellow-clad firefighters clambered over the train cars and peeled back the roof of one car to gain entry to the passenger compartment.

 

"Victims are on top of victims," Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry said after surveying the scene. "Metal and debris is all tangled together. It's a difficult situation."

 

At one point, a Los Angeles police officer went to the house of Jim Halty, who lives near the tracks. They had a brief conversation and the officer left with an American flag.

 

A short time later, alongside the wreckage, scores of uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers formed two lines in a makeshift formation waiting for rescue crews to extract the body of an LAPD officer, Spree Desha, 35 of Simi Valley, who was on her way home from work.

 

Desha, a seven-year veteran, had started working last month at LAPD headquarters in the department's office of operations as a writer and training officer. She took that assignment after working patrol in North Hollywood, officials said.

 

Late Friday her flag-draped body was carried past her fellow officers, their faces somber and their hands clasped in front of them. Those gathered waited in silence, many peering up at the hole cut in the twisted metal of the front train car, from which firefighters were pulling bodies.

 

Shortly after sunset, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke to reporters at the scene, saying: "We don't know the number of people still trapped inside. We don't know what condition they're in. There are people trapped in there dead and alive -- they know that some are dead."

 

He said at least 10 fatalities had been confirmed by the coroner's office and that the number of injured "is hard to estimate at this point. We know that dozens of people have been injured, probably over 100." The death toll was later raised to at least 15.

 

Villaraigosa also said he was heartbroken by what he called "the devastation, the carnage," adding, "I haven't seen anything like it."

 

There were three passenger cars on the Metrolink train, each capable of carrying up to 155 people. Injured passengers, some of them in critical condition, were taken to several nearby hospitals, including Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, Huntington Hospital, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center and Northridge Hospital Medical Center. The triage center was established at the Chatsworth Hills Academy, just yards from the crash site.

 

Three hours after the crash, as darkness fell, several victims were still being assessed, lying under thick red blankets to keep them warm on the cold grass. Medical personnel wheeled victims on stretchers to an armada of ambulances. One man walked slowly with bandages on his nose and face, an IV bag held aloft by a firefighter.

 

Another woman was whisked off with an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, with her purse tucked in against the rail of the stretcher.

 

All wore the color-coded tags that indicated the severity of their injuries and their names. A medevac helicopter lifted off, the noise drowning out the shouts of personnel and then leaving relative silence in its place. Ambulance lights bathed the scene in the bright flashes of their red and white emergency lights.

 

Metrolink trains have been involved in several serious wrecks in recent years, the worst of them a crash with an SUV near Glendale that killed 11 people in 2005. Friday's crash more closely resembled one in Placentia in 2002, in which three people died and more than 260 were injured when a Burlington Northern & Santa Fe freight train plowed into a double-decker Metrolink passenger train.

 

Federal investigators blamed that crash on an inattentive Burlington Northern crew that missed a warning signal as well as on the lack of an automatic braking system on the freight train.

 

The worst train wreck in Los Angeles history occurred on Jan. 22, 1956, when a Santa Fe train en route from Los Angeles to San Diego lurched off a curve near the Los Angeles River, killing 30 people and injuring 130.

 

Professor James Moore, the director of the transportation engineering program at USC, said he was surprised by the collision because a great deal of money has been invested in technology designed to prevent such head-on crashes.

 

"This is quite different from the Glendale crash. In that one, there was a Jeep Cherokee on the tracks that was not supposed to be there," Moore said. "These trains were rolling assets that were subject to active management, and the system is designed to make sure they do not occupy the same place at the same time."

 

Moore said he suspected that the "geometry" of the site -- referring to the severe angle of the bend -- may have played a role.

 

Jeremy Schneider, a 36-year-old paralegal from Simi Valley, was sitting next to a friend after the train pulled out of the Chatsworth station. "We were talking and all of a sudden -- bam!"

 

Schneider said he assessed the situation, saw that his friend "had a massive gash on her head" and began moving through the car, seeing how he could help. "I see a fire, the train's on fire," he said. "A lot of people can't move. . . . One guy was yelling all the time, 'Please get me out of here.' He was pinned."

 

Schneider said he had a friend who was injured in a previous Metrolink crash. "I think it's an outrage that Metrolink has let this happen again," he said. "How do you hit a freight train head on in broad daylight? How could this happen?"

 

---

 

Any thoughts on this? 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were on it shortly after it occurred at about 4:30; 2 and 7 stayed on it through at least parts of the primetime. I liked KABC's coverage in particular, thanks to their two HD helicopters, but I was frustrated for a longtime that neither Brown/Tuzee nor Ono/Leyva (who alternated coverage, one hour at a time until 20/20 at 10) understood that the locomotive was embedded in the first coach. This was in spite of the fact that wide shots clearly showed the top fan units and side paint from the locomotive in the area that the firefighters stood. At one point, one of the KABC helicopter pilots even speculated at one that the locomotive portion just disconnected and rode off.

[News4LA 0]

KABC: They had the best coverage. Using both Air7 & Air7HD. Stayed on the air longest. They were number 1 last night. Used a crawl to tell people to watch ABC World News on digital channel 7.2 or abc7.com

 

KCBS: They came in 2nd in my book. Thank God Laura was off (don't care for her). I love Pat Harvey. Pat & Paul work extremely well with each other. SKY9 and Chopper2 were both used.

 

KCAL9: Covered it, then went to Dodgers game, then went back to covering the crash.

 

KNBC: Extremely disappointed with their coverage. I can understand going to NBC Nightly News at 6:30, because of the live reports of the crash. But they should have went back on the air @ 7. But NOOO, they had to show Extra & Access Hollywood. It's not like Brittany or Paris or Lindsey had a breakdown yesterday. They didn't even use or promote there digital stations 4.2 or 4.4 to cover the accident.

 

KTLA: Did a decent job considering they don't usually do breaking news, except this summer's earthquake. Stayed on until 8.pm.

 

KTTV/KCOP: No comment, didn't watch. KCOP simulcasted KTTV's feed (sister station) I think they stayed on until 8pm

 

Spanish Stations: 52 & 22 covered it. They broke into local programming. Univison 34 didnt seemed cover it until there 6:30 newscast.

 

The only reason why I was watching all to these stations is because I'm home with an extremely bad cold. Had nothing better to do.

[btbrtq3 0]

KNBC: Extremely disappointed with their coverage. I can understand going to NBC Nightly News at 6:30, because of the live reports of the crash. But they should have went back on the air @ 7. But NOOO, they had to show Extra & Access Hollywood. It's not like Brittany or Paris or Lindsey had a breakdown yesterday. They didn't even use or promote there digital stations 4.2 or 4.4 to cover the accident.

 

I totally agree. I'm really surprised with their coverage, compared to something else like the July earthquake where they stayed on for what seemed like the whole day. I know they cut in to Ellen during a commercial break, but I was still really surprised about the fact they didn't come back after Nightly News (or the fact they even didn't completely even get rid of it for the night). I also heard somebody say their coverage on NewsChopper4 looked like a cell phone camera, which it did. You would think that when they go HD, they'd get an HD copter, but nope!

 

KNBC really scored badly in this one. Somebody else *COUGH*ABC7*COUGH* probably won the ratings race for this...

[mbhcity 3]

KABC: They had the best coverage. Using both Air7 & Air7HD. Stayed on the air longest. They were number 1 last night. Used a crawl to tell people to watch ABC World News on digital channel 7.2 or abc7.com

 

KCBS: They came in 2nd in my book. Thank God Laura was off (don't care for her). I love Pat Harvey. Pat & Paul work extremely well with each other. SKY9 and Chopper2 were both used.

 

KCAL9: Covered it, then went to Dodgers game, then went back to covering the crash.

 

KNBC: Extremely disappointed with their coverage. I can understand going to NBC Nightly News at 6:30, because of the live reports of the crash. But they should have went back on the air @ 7. But NOOO, they had to show Extra & Access Hollywood. It's not like Brittany or Paris or Lindsey had a breakdown yesterday. They didn't even use or promote there digital stations 4.2 or 4.4 to cover the accident.

 

KTLA: Did a decent job considering they don't usually do breaking news, except this summer's earthquake. Stayed on until 8.pm.

 

KTTV/KCOP: No comment, didn't watch. KCOP simulcasted KTTV's feed (sister station) I think they stayed on until 8pm

 

Spanish Stations: 52 & 22 covered it. They broke into local programming. Univison 34 didnt seemed cover it until there 6:30 newscast.

 

The only reason why I was watching all to these stations is because I'm home with an extremely bad cold. Had nothing better to do.

 

KTTV and KCOP did a great job, though it is unusual for both stations to cover the same event under one newscast. I've never seen this before. You could tell that Carlos, Christine and the FOX11 News team really felt emotional about the incident, but nonetheless they covered it with grace.

[cjm5150 0]

KNBC 4 had initial coverage just after 4:30 on 4.4. They then simulcasted 4 and 4.4 both being in 4:3 standard definition until just before 5 when channel 4 went to full screen HI-Def.

[btbrtq3 0]

KNBC 4 had initial coverage just after 4:30 on 4.4. They then simulcasted 4 and 4.4 both being in 4:3 standard definition until just before 5 when channel 4 went to full screen HI-Def.

 

No, they are not full-HD yet. No HD portable-cams, and no HD chopper.

[ABC7 Los Angeles 1]

I was at the scene of the accident today and it was very emotional for me to see those trains like that, because on occasion I go out to Chatsworth or Simi Valley's station to see Metrolinks and Amtraks go by. I know the kid who texted the engineer a minute before the accident.

[Vlad 276]

Quite a disturbing accident, apparently the accident was caused because of the conducter or train operator was actually text messaging instead of looking at the tracks and manning the controls. And did not see other train come in... Similar to the Staten Island Ferry Accident that occured back in October 2003 when the driver was subdued as well...