Metro train, bus collide in downtown L.A.
Authorities say 15 people sustain minor injuries in the crash, between a Blue Line train and bus near Washington Boulevard and Griffith Avenue.
Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
A Metro Blue Line train collided with a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles this morning, causing minor injuries to 15 people, authorities said.
The collision, which occurred near Washington Boulevard and Griffith Avenue, was reported about 6:15 a.m. as the Blue Line train was traveling south to Long Beach, said Officer Ana Aguirre of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Paramedics have taken 15 people with "just bumps and bruises," to area hospitals, said d'Lisa Davies, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Officials initially reported that seven to 13 people had been injured.
The bus was not carrying any passengers. All the injuries were to people on the three-car Blue Line train, including the operator, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The collision caused the train to derail, but it remained upright, he said.
Authorities are still trying to determine why the crash occurred, said Metro spokesman Marc Littman.
Full service on the Blue Line was restored at 9:15 a.m. Riders experienced 20-minute delays while the track was being cleared this morning, Metro spokesman Jose Upaldo said.
The Blue Line travels from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Long Beach, serving many South L.A. areas, such as Compton, Vernon and Florence-Firestone. As the longest line in the Metro system and the second busiest light rail line in the United States, it averages more than 70,000 weekday boardings, according to Metro Rail.
Since the Blue Line debuted in 1990, the rail service has tallied 90 fatalities, 20 of them suicides, said Rick Jager, a Metro spokesman.
Of the total fatalities, 64 involved the train and pedestrians, and 26 the train and vehicles, officials said.
No one on board a Metro Rail train has died in an accident, and a collision between two trains has never occurred, Jager said.
A total of 821 accidents and non-fatal collisions have occurred since July 1990, and 652 of them involved a train colliding with a vehicle, such as this morning's collision, Jager said. The others involved 169 pedestrians.
francisco.varaorta@latimes.com
Times staff writer Steve Hymon contributed to this report.
