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LOS ANGELES Metrolink's top spokesperson quit her job Monday in a dispute over how facts about Friday's deadly train crash were made public. Denise Tyrrell said she had spoken with Metrolink's chief executive and was authorized to release the basic facts of the investigation before announcing that the Metrolink driver ran a red light on the line shared by Union Pacific freighters. That mistake apparently led to the head-on collision, something a National Transportation Safety Board investigation confirmed, Tyrrell told reporters early Monday. "I believe that the public should know the facts as early as possible," she said. The Metrolink...

Ron Roberts, the chairman of the board of directors for Metrolink, just read me this statement that he attributed to the Metrolink board: "Metrolink staff has recently made comments regarding the possible cause of the September 12th, 2008, tragedy in Chatsworth. The National Transportation Safety Board has characterized these comments as premature and has ordered Metrolink to withhold further comments at this time pending investigation and we agree." On Saturday, Metrolink spokesperson Denise Tyrrell told reporters that the engineer of the Metrolink train caused the crash by not obeying a track signal telling him to stop. In an unusual move,...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― A Metrolink dispatcher tried to warn the engineer on train No. 111 that he had run a red light, it was reported Sunday. At least 25 people were killed on the train, which left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles at 3:35 p.m. Friday and crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train shortly before 4:23 p.m. in Chatsworth. Officials said that of the 225 people aboard, 25 died in the crash and 134 were injured, 44 critically. A Metrolink spokeswoman Saturday took the unusual step of saying the agency was responsible for the crash because...

LOS ANGELES - In a surprisingly swift assessment, the operators of the commuter train involved in the head-on crash that killed at least 25 people blamed its engineer for the horrific accident. ADVERTISEMENT However, a National Transportation Safety Board member cautioned that it was too early to establish the cause of Friday's accident. Others, too, questioned the timing of the operator's move to affix culpability. Rescuers were still sifting through the twisted wreckage Saturday when Metrolink announced — 19 hours after the crash — that its preliminary investigation determined the engineer failed to heed a red signal light, leading to...

CHATSWORTH, Calif. (CBS) ― Metrolink officials Saturday put the blame squarely on the engineer of the train for the deadly crash that has claimed at least 25 lives. They say he ran a red light. But a group of local teens, train enthusiasts, who know the engineer well doubt that he was to blame. They called their friend professional and caring and said he helped them learn about trains and being an engineer. To a man, they said he would "never" have been reckless or unprofessional or run a red light. But one minute before the deadliest crash in Metrolink...

Congo train crash kills at least 100: government By Joe Bavier A train crash in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 100 people and injured more than 200, the central African country's minister of information said on Thursday. "We are still discovering the dead. So right now we are putting the death toll at about 100," Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters, adding that the cause of the crash was still unknown. "It happened late last night, so we haven't had time to look into how it occurred. But we are sending a team tomorrow, and we...

At Least 25 Die In German Train Crash LATHEN, Germany, Sept. 22, 2006 (AP) A high-tech train traveling at 125 mph crashed in northwestern Germany on Friday, killing at least 25 people in the first fatal wreck involving the magnetic levitation system. The train, which runs primarily as a demonstration by its manufacturer, was carrying at least 29 people when it struck a maintenance vehicle carrying two workers on the elevated track. Mangled wreckage hung from the 13-foot-high track, with seats and other debris strewn below. Police spokesman Martin Ratermann said the death toll rose to 25 after more searching...

Magnetic train crashes in Germany An elevated magnetic train has crashed on a test track in north-western Germany, killing several people. The train, which floats on a monorail via a magnetic levitation system called Maglev, was going at 200km/h (120 mph) when it crashed, a local official said. Some carriages were left balancing on a section of track about five metres (16.5ft) in the air after the accident near the town of Lathen. The driverless train hit a maintenance vehicle on the track, officials said. "There are some fatalities - we don't know how many yet," said Dieter Sturm, a...

Aid group says April train collision in North Korea left 1,000 dead Thu Jun 1, 11:09 PM ET A Buddhist humanitarian aid group says two troop trains packed with soldiers collided head-on in North Korea in April leaving more than 1,000 dead. The reported accident occurred in Kowon County in the remote and rugged northeastern province of South Hamkyong on April 23 when a train went out of control on a downhill stretch of track after its brakes failed. It rammed into another train that was climbing the hill on the same track, according to the group, Good Friends. "The...

/begin my translationN. Korea: Report of 1,000 Deaths in Train CrashWill take months to notify victims' family. [2006-06-02 10:46]  Buraesan Station along Pyongyang-Pyonggang Line (from "Good Friends")(note: the station is a spot marked with short solid line in the middle of winding dotted line going from right to left, after branching off from vertical line at the right side of the picture. A report came out, alleging that large-scale train crash occurred near Gowon County, S. Hamkyong Province, killing over 1,000 passengers. It remains to be seen if this can be confirmed. A N. Korea aid organization, Good Friends (Co,) reported in...

ELMWOOD PARK, Ill. - A group of cars hit by a commuter train at a busy suburban Chicago crossing had 54 seconds from the time the gates were activated until the train came barreling through, an official with the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. The crossing gates appeared to be working, but traffic was backed up during the evening rush Wednesday and several cars became trapped between the gates, acting NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker said."The cars were in a place they shouldn't have been at the time," Rosenker said. The train hit them because they had nowhere to go,...

More Than 100 Die in Pakistan Train Crash By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Three passenger trains crashed in a chain-reaction pileup in a southern Pakistan station early Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds of others, officials said. Pakistan's deadliest train wreck in more than a decade left the station yard covered with twisted steel from at least 13 derailed cars. Officials said body parts were strewn about and emergency crews had to cut through metal to reach some victims. "It is a very gruesome situation," police chief Agha Mohammed Tahir told The Associated Press. "Rescue workers...

GLENDALE --The 25-year-old man accused of causing the chain-reaction Metrolink derailment that killed 11 passengers and injured 180 others was charged early today with multiple counts of murder. Juan Manuel Alvarez, of Compton, was being held without bail at a hospital's jail ward, pending his arraignment this afternoon. Alvarez is accused of leaving his Jeep Grand Cherokee on a railroad track after apparently changing his mind about committing suicide. Relatives said he was despondent over marital problems. ''He's not going to engage my sympathy because he was despondent. His despondency doesn't move me,'' District Attorney Steve Cooley told The Associated...

Police investigating a train crash in southern England in which seven people died are focusing on a theory that a driver parked a car on the rails in an attempt to commit suicide. Witnesses say the man stopped on a remote level crossing near the Berkshire village near Reading on Saturday evening. An off-duty Thames Valley Police officer saw the car on the track as the barriers came down but had only just reached an emergency phone when the 100 mph train struck. Six people died in the impact -- including the driver of the car and the driver of...

A South Korean news agency reports North Korea has declared a State of Emergency in the region where two trains crashed and exploded. According to media reports, up to three thousand people were injured or killed in the crash between trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum near the border with China. North Korea has reportedly cut international phone lines to keep news of the crash from leaking out of the country. One witness is quoted as saying the area around the station "has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded." Just hours earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il...

Train Wreck in South Carolina.