A Metrolink train smacked into the tail end of a freight train in Fullerton early Thursday, leaving 19 people injured and shutting down a main rail artery between Los Angeles and Santa Ana, frustrating thousands of commuters and other travelers whose trips were delayed, rerouted or canceled.
"I thought I was going to die," said Lamont Hawkins, 41, of Long Beach, who was on his way to a Santa Ana interview for a job as a security guard. "Everybody was screaming. I was screaming. It was sick--something out of a horror movie. I've never been that scared in my life. . . . Thank God nobody was killed."
The worst injury suffered in the collision--the first train-on-train accident in Orange County in a decade--was a broken arm, officials said.
The crash of the L.A.-to-Oceanside commuter train sparked fires in the Metrolink engine car and on several overturned freight cars, while passengers dashed out of the train's doors and scrambled through windows. Thick smoke and reports of a possible toxic spill had emergency response crews girding for the worst. But the fires quickly were extinguished and the feared hazardous spill proved to be ordinary combustible materials.
Because the accident occurred about 8:15 a.m.--past the peak of the morning rush hour and involved a commuter train moving in the opposite direction from most morning traffic--relatively few passengers were affected, Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. The afternoon rush hour was a different story: At least 3,500 Metrolink and Amtrak passengers returning south from Los Angeles had their trains diverted through San Bernardino and Riverside to avoid closed sections of track. Some also were ferried by bus to their stations of origin.
"For a bad situation, this was as good as it gets," Fullerton Police Sgt. Joe Klein said.
Thursday's crash occurred along one of the busiest train junctions in the region, where freight traffic, two Metrolink lines and Amtrak service converge. Tracks were expected to be cleared by early today, and morning commuter trains were expected to run on schedule, Metrolink and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway officials said Thursday.
It was not immediately clear what caused the collision of the southbound Metrolink train and the northbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe train less than a mile east of Fullerton Airport near Brookhurst Road. Investigators were reviewing recording devices in both engines and inspecting switching signals on the tracks to determine whether they were working improperly or if one of the conductors missed a signal.
