Commuter train derails in Glendale (Update: Crash escalates to criminal probe)

AP ^ | 01/26/05 | AP

[Pikamax]

Commuter train derails in Glendale

Associated Press

GLENDALE, Calif. - A Metrolink commuter train derailed early Wednesday in this Los Angeles suburb, and firefighters were searching through the wreckage.

Television reports showed smoke coming from twisted wreckage at the scene of the crash, where two separate trains could be seen derailed.

The derailment in this Los Angeles suburb was near San Fernando Road and Chevy Chase Boulevard.

[BullDog108]

You beat me by seconds!

[BurbankKarl]

Metrolink is now running three trains from Burbank to Lancaster....

215, 217 and 219

first leaves at 510pm

Passengers will depart Union Station to Glendale, then take a bus to Burbank and board trains.

[Czar]

Good point. I have no use for Baca or Bratton--they're both big government tax & spend gun grabbers. And politically correct to the extreme.

[BurbankKarl]

I wonder if Baca was all shook up because this guy was released early? That would be the end of Baca in this county....he already is responsible for a double murder last week.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yep. Human translators, at least for the time being, don't have to worry professionally about job security.

Unless people don't mind punching up automatic translators and having the finished product sound like "Yoda"!!

[BurbankKarl]

Name of subject is 26y/o Juan Alveraz

was taken into custody at the crash site...he was wondering around saying "I'm
sorry, I'm sorry"... and he had wounds to he arms that are apparently
self-inflicted, apparently he had tried different type of suicide before he
decided to put his Jeep on the tracks...

[BurbankKarl]

Glendale PD is stating suicide attempts were committed after the derailment attempt.

[proud American in Canada]

I'm just jumping in here b/c I saw the latest reports that a "suicidal man had caused the crash."

I thought it was bad enough that he had to take down I don't know how many others with him...

But he got out of the car and watched it????!!!! Didn't move the SUV?

Several counts of murder for this guy, imo.

[Czar]

If this guy was illegal,...

If he is, you can be certain no stone will go unturned to avoid divulging that fact. Lets see how this evolves.

[brytlea]

Yours made more sense!
sundero

[brytlea]

Suicide attempt after the derailment makes WAY more sense!
sundero

[lonevoice]

bookmark

[Sergio]

I've read a few posts where folks are wondering why the media is not reporting if the suspect is an illegal alien.

Think about it for a moment, do you really thing the media would go out of it's way to say that someone was a citizen of this country?

I don't have an opinion on his citizenship status at all, I will say that if he is here illegally, I would use this incident to try and get some border security policies with some real teeth in them.

They did report that he has some drug related arrests. Wouldn't it sound better in newspeak to say, "the suspect, an illegal alien was has been arrested on drug charges in the past...", rather than "the suspect, who has been arrested on drug charges in the past..."

It's in the MSMs nature to try and make the opening comment as spectacular as possible, so since it hasn't been mentioned, my take is that the MSN doesn't know the suspects citizenship status, or he is a citizen. JMHO.

Best Regards

Sergio

[BurbankKarl]

Why we are fed up

[AmericanInTokyo]

I have seen case after case of them sitting on information, spiking it. I just don't trust our politically correct media on these kinds of things. We will know in a few days hopefully. Let's see how it shakes out.

[Wolfstar]

The death toll could have been far higher, but for the heroic efforts of some Costco employees. Following is an excerpt from the Daily News website:

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - Jenny Doll had just arrived at her job as a store clerk early Wednesday when a thunderous explosion split the air and the building shook violently. Doll, 30, and about a dozen other Costco employees working near the warehouse store's loading dock rushed outside to find a splintered Metrolink commuter train jutting into the parking lot.

Trapped passengers - some severely injured - screamed for help as flames raced toward the front of the mangled train car and smoke and diesel fumes filled the air.

The flames had almost reached at least six passengers trapped in the nose of the train car, said Doll, who with other employees attempted to douse the flames with small fire extinguishers.

Employees recounted a desperate scene, with forklift operators, truck drivers and stock clerks working side-by-side to pull victims from the wreckage before flames consumed them. They used store carts to wheel some of the most severely injured to safety.

"There were people stuck in the front. Everything was mangled," Doll said. "You could not even tell that it was a train cab at all."

One elderly man from the back of the train was covered in blood and soot and appeared to have broken arms and legs. He was one of the last rescued before employees backed off because of leaking diesel.

"The man they took out of the back, he was mangled. I wish I never saw it," Doll said as she watched firefighters continue the rescue.

The elderly man survived for a few minutes after being pulled from the train, but died after thanking his rescuers, said Hugo Moran, a 34-year-old receiving clerk from Van Nuys.

[TankerKC]

You do know that there are plenty of folks in the US with Hispanic surname that are perfectly legal--been here for generations. You DO know that, right?

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks. I appreciate you and a couple of others setting that straight. You must have had an interesting morning. I'm not sure why I wrote Las the first time. Oh well... LOL.

[CedarDave]

One elderly man from the back of the train was covered in blood and soot and appeared to have broken arms and legs. He was one of the last rescued before employees backed off because of leaking diesel.

The elderly man survived for a few minutes after being pulled from the train, but died after thanking his rescuers, said Hugo Moran, a 34-year-old receiving clerk from Van Nuys.

This paragraph particularly struck me. Ordinary Americans still ignore danger and ruch in to help fellow Americans in time of trouble.

[heleny]

Metrolink trains going INTO Los Angeles always move backwards. That is to say the engine is at the back. Metrolink trains going OUT of Los Angeles run the normal way with the engine at the front.

Whenever I took Metrolink, I noticed the engines always pointed toward Union Station. Same with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains (except when the engines malfunctioned and the train cars had to be attached to alternate engines at the other end; then the directions were changed). The engines pushed from behind the cars when going away from LA, and the engines pulled when going toward LA.

Reason is that at Union Station in Los Angeles the tracks end at a dead end. There is no way to get behind the train. When there is an equipment malfunction it is usually the engine, so they always want the engine where it is easily accessible.

If the engine died in the station, then the train would be stuck behind the engine if the train entered backwards. My observations were of the opposite orientation, although I only took the afternoon Ventura County line of Metrolink and the same tracks for Amtrak (down to San Diego county at all hours).