Railroad Accidents

The phone rang at a rare moment between Angie Akins' frantic drives from her home and her husband's bedside in an intensive-care unit, between shuttling to her job and driving her 14-year-old daughter to after-school sports and ballet. It was a lawyer who'd spotted her husband's name among those badly injured in the Sept. 12 Metrolink crash in Chatsworth. An attorney she had never met was urging her to retain him and sue the government railroad for all it was worth.

Recently, Racheal Mofya opened an eye. She squeezed a doctor's hand. Bedside visitors saw her wiggle her toes. She has not regained consciousness since the deadly Metrolink crash on Sept. 12, which left her with a fractured skull, a broken ankle, a dislocated hip, third-degree burns, and lacerations on her face and one of her legs. But "we gain little increments of hope," said Pat Abruzzese.

Faced with potentially staggering wrongful death and injury claims in the wake of last month's Chatsworth train crash, the Metrolink board today is scheduled to discuss a lawsuit the commuter rail line has filed against the company that provides its engineers. The engineer of the Metrolink train that collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 people, is suspected of sending and receiving cellphone text messages seconds before the accident.

Metrolink officials said Monday that they have ordered engineers to slow down as they approach possible red lights, a new safety regulation that comes shortly after two trains collided in Rialto and two months after a fatal head-on crash in Chatsworth killed 25. Under the rule, which was put in place Friday, Metrolink trains must immediately slow to 40 mph or less when they are alerted that a light ahead may be red, the agency said.

A bicyclist was struck and killed Tuesday in Oceanside in what authorities say was an apparent attempt to beat a commuter train across the tracks. San Diego County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Munsey said a Coaster train struck the male bicyclist at a crossing at Wisconsin Avenue and South Coast Highway.

A pedestrian was struck and killed by a Blue Line commuter train Friday afternoon, a transit official said. The incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. as the southbound train approached Spring Street at Del Mar Avenue, said Helen Gilstrap, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The male victim was not identified. The Blue Line was closed for more than two hours while police investigated the incident.

A subway train derailed near downtown Washington, necessitating the rescue of 60 people from a tunnel and sending 20 people to the hospital, officials said. About 150 people were on the train, officials said, and at least one person was seriously injured. The other injuries were mostly "bumps and bruises," officials said, and one of those with reportedly minor injuries was pregnant. The accident happened about 3:45 p.m.

A collision-avoidance system that transportation safety board investigators say could have prevented the fatal collision of two trains in Placentia nearly five years ago was approved for use on freight trains by federal regulators Monday. The system, called positive train control, will warn crew members of dangerous situations and automatically apply the brakes if they fail to act.

Four runaway rail cars traveled 20 miles before hitting two parked locomotives, causing a chemical fire near Irvine that prompted an evacuation and orders that others stay indoors. The crash released "a toxic cloud" of butyl acetate, a flammable liquid, from a burning tanker car, authorities said. The fire produced a huge column of black smoke, and a section of the Kentucky River caught fire. No injuries were reported, authorities said.

The Chicago Transit Authority has fired five employees for failing to recognize poor track conditions before a subway train derailed in the summer, sending about 150 passengers to the hospital, the agency said. The fired employees include two track inspectors, their foreman, an engineer and a track-maintenance manager responsible for overseeing the section of track involved. Their actions put customers and other workers at risk, said Frank Kruesi, president of the transit authority.