Runaway Train Jumps Tracks in Commerce

The 31 freight cars had rolled free in a switching yard in Montclair during what should have been a routine decoupling and traveled nearly 30 miles on a rail line headed for downtown Los Angeles. Railroad officials said they had few choices on where or how to stop the train during the more than 20 minutes the cars barreled toward Los Angeles.

Without notifying state or local emergency officials, they diverted the speeding cars onto a side track, causing the train to derail.

Commerce city officials called Union Pacific's actions irresponsible and asked why no one was notified of the impending danger.

Residents ran for safety shortly before noon as 11 of the freight cars toppled onto Davie Avenue, a blue-collar neighborhood of single-family houses separated from the rail line by a chain-link fence. A brother carried his pregnant sister to safety seconds before freight cars crushed their home. Crying children were passed over cinder-block walls to emergency workers. A father broke a living-room window to free his daughters after debris blocked the front door.

Neighbors described a scene that seemed like a cross between an earthquake and a tornado as a cloud of white dust and rocks, mixed with tons of lumber that had been carried in the open freight cars, came crashing down.

Officials and employees at Union Pacific on Friday recounted a series of missed opportunities and poor communication during failed attempts to stop the train from leaving the yard.

David Manning, manager of terminal operations for Union Pacific in Los Angeles, declined to assign blame for the crash, but he said it seemed unlikely that the train was set loose by an equipment failure. He noted that each of the cars has its own set of air brakes, which should have been engaged.

They had to have been released -- either manually or as a result of equipment failure -- for the cars to roll.

"Equipment failure is pretty rare," Manning said, "especially on 30 cars."

A source close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a crew was working on the train in the yard and a worker at the front of the train mistakenly believed the brakes had been set at the rear. Meanwhile, a worker at the rear made the same mistake, believing the front brakes had been engaged.