Coasting out of Chatsworth at 4:22 p.m., Doyle Souser had caught an early train home from work to cook his family a nice tri-tip for dinner. Charles Peck had just wrapped up an interview for a job he hoped would land him in Southern California so he could marry his fiancee. Aida Magdaleno, a farmworker's daughter studying at Cal State Northridge, was on her way home to attend her nephew's baptism.
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25 linked forever by fate
METROLINK COLLISION
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 18, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 109 words Type of Material: Correction
Metrolink victims: The profile in Tuesday's California section of Doyle Souser, who died in the Metrolink train collision, said a memorial service would be held Friday. The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Camarillo Community Church, 1322 Las Posas Road, Camarillo. A memorial fund has been established and checks made out to "Doyle Souser Memorial Fund" can be mailed to 2408 Paseo Noche, Camarillo, CA 93012. A profile in Monday's Section A of another victim, Yi Chao of Simi Valley, gave his age as 72. He was 71. A profile in Sunday's Section A of Michael Hammersley, who also died in the crash, spelled his name Hammersly.
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They didn't know one another. Their only connection came when they boarded the first car of Metrolink 111 that afternoon.
But a minute later, the far-flung threads of their lives would be forever tied off in a knot in the wreckage of California's worst train accident in modern history.
In that instant, the cold rules of physics, or the mystery of fate, claimed a variegated slice of humanity as perhaps only a disaster can do and left a scattershot pattern of emotional wounds far and wide.
Students and faculty at Theodore Roosevelt Middle School in Glendale grappled with the loss of their beloved head counselor, Ron Grace, 55, the heart and soul of the school. One parent, Emma Villalobos, said, "My kids had an angel named Mr. Grace."
At Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, they mourned English teacher Paul Long, 54, who was traveling home from his mother's funeral with his wife and son when the crash occurred. Long was airlifted to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The next day, doctors removed him from life support.
"He was a gentle and humble friend with such a warm heart unmatched by many," wrote one of his students, Matthew Slaven, in an online memorial. "I remember his smile, his joy. His love for us kids was unmatched. He genuinely cared. To this very day, more than any other teacher, I thank God that I had the privilege of having Mr. Long as my teacher."
The head-on collision with a Union Pacific freight train on a bend in Chatsworth punched the Metrolink's locomotive right into the first car. At least 22 of the 24 passengers killed in the Sept. 12 crash -- the engineer also died -- were riding in that car, according to the coroner's office.
One was Gregory Lintner, 48, who survived the fatal Metrolink crash in Glendale in 2005 but never got over it. With him he carried a photo of Juan Manuel Alvarez, the man convicted of murder for causing the crash. His wife said he always tried to hide his pain from her and their 15-year-old son.
