USC freshman injured in Metrolink crash in critical condition

Eighteen-year-old Katie Longawa, a freshman at USC, was on her first trip home from college Friday afternoon.

Her mother, camera in hand, was waiting to greet her at the Moorpark train station.

But the train did not show up.

Then a woman told Longawa's mother, "There's been a train crash. . . . It's bad. The train's not coming."

Longawa's mother, Cherie Phoenix, 59, of Thousand Oaks, said she went into crisis mode.

"I thought, 'OK, she's there. How do I get there?' "

She got on the freeway, followed by other people from the station, but the road was jammed. Then she got a call from her husband about what happened.

Longawa, who, according to USC is studying print journalism, was among the 135 injured passengers on the Metrolink train that crashed into a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Today, she was reported in critical but stable condition at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where five other train wreck victims also were in critical condition and eight more were hospitalized with lesser injuries.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited some of the patients this afternoon and said of Longawa, "She's really a fighter."

Phoenix rattled off her daughter's injuries: fractured sternum, spine and ribs; punctured and collapsed lung; lacerated liver and bleeding in the chest cavity. Saturday afternoon doctors also found she had a tear in her carotid artery, her mother said -- though they are hopeful that will heal without surgery.

She also suffered an injury to her right hip, as if she had been cut to the bone by a crescent-shaped blade. Phoenix said she expects her to be hospitalized for at least another two weeks.

Phoenix said her daughter told her she was sitting on the left side of the train.

"She saw the freight train coming around a bend in the tracks. She thought, 'Well, this is weird,' " her mother said. "She doesn't remember the impact."

Somehow she got out of the passenger car. A firefighter slung her slender frame over his shoulder and laid her down. He told two employees from a nearby school to look after her.

"He turned to them and said, 'Don't let her get up, and don't let her go to sleep,' " Phoenix said.

Longawa gave the Good Samaritans her parents' number to call.

Phoenix had planned to cook a welcome home meal of pounded fried pork cutlets, egg noodles and a salad. Then they were going to watch the movie "Life or Something Like It."

"I'm just grateful my daughter is alive," Phoenix said.