Results tagged “derailment”

Reverend Donald Ashman, who "leads a small congregation at the Anglican Church of Our Saviour on the Westside of Los Angeles, where he has been for a quarter of a century [and] teaches Latin and world history at Hoover High School in Glendale," was on board Metrolink Train 111 on Friday, September 12th at 4:23 p.m. when it crashed head-on into a Union Pacific Freight Train. Despite his own back injuries sustained in the crash, Ashman remained on scene to help people physically and spiritually. He told firefighters he was a priest, and offered prayers for the dead, including Robert Sanchez, the Metrolink engineer. The LA Times describes Ashman's encounter with Sanchez:

At one point, a firefighter asked him to come with him to pray for the engineer, whose body was still trapped in the wreckage. That blanket wasn't white. It was blood red. Ashman touched his arm, made the sign of the cross and said a quick prayer.

Rescue personnel are still in the process of assisting people involved in this afternoon's Metrolink train derailment. Triage areas are set up near the scene in Chatsworth as people continue to be assessed and aided following the collision that took place at 4:23 this afternoon when Metrolink #111 struck or was struck by a freight train. 4 people are reported dead, and many more have been injured. A SigAlert has been issued for the area as well, and Metrolink and emergency personnel are asking that people not attempt to go to the scene themselves.

Metrolink Train #111, traveling from Union Station to Moorpark on the Ventura Line, collided with a freight train near Heather Lee Lane and the 118 Freeway in Chatsworth just before 4:30 this afternoon. The collision is being described as "head on" and both trains appeared to be on the same track.

A Metrolink train collided head on with a freight train in Chatsworth just before 4:30 this afternoon, causing one of the cars on the Metrolink train to turn over on its side. The train was heading west at the time. According to a live report on KCBS there are 20-25 people who are injured, and of them 10 are critically injured and 3 require extrication. Emergency personnel are on the scene right now.

20 miles northeast of Los Angeles, four cars of a freight train jumped ship track at about 3:30 a.m. this morning. No one was hurt or was affected by this delay. An unknown substance was leaking from the train so the fire department's hazardous materials squad was dispatched to the scene as well as police who are investigating the cause.

What a sad legacy for a hospital named after Martin Luther King, Jr. and Charles R. Drew. The Los Angeles Times reports that King/Drew Medical Center is losing accreditation from a National Health Agency. While it won't force the hospital to close, it will prevent several insurance companies from paying for services there and will likely end several of the doctor training programs the beleaguered facility is famous for. This is as good as time as any to take a look at The Times special report on the trouble at King/Drew and to remind our readers not to get sick in Watts. Seriously.

The hits just keep on comin' in the Metrolink disaster. But this time, such insensitivity could have been avoided.

Our own personal top story this morning is that it is raining and it's Friday and we don't want to go to work. But we digress.

We don't mean to be all Metrolink derailment all the time but LA Blogs has been doing a great job of pulling together the blog posts about the incident. They've been slow to trickle in so far but we were struck by Be Frank, who was on the scene to take pictures.

There are now 9 reported dead. According to Sherrif Lee Baca, the derailment happened because of a car deliberately put on the tracks. One train hit the car and jumped off the tracks hitting a parked Pacific Freight Train and an oncoming metrolink train heading in the opposite direction.