Man to face murder charges for parking car on tracks
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 5:14 PM EST (2214 GMT)
GLENDALE, California (CNN) -- A suicidal man will face murder charges after parking his vehicle on tracks Wednesday, causing a commuter train collision that killed at least 10 people outside Los Angeles, officials said.
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual who was suicidal," said Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams.
The suspect, identified as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, got out of the Jeep Cherokee before impact and watched the collision, Adams said.
The Compton, California, resident is in custody and will be charged with one count of homicide for each death resulting from the incident, Adams said.
Before being taken into custody, the suspect was treated for superficial wounds that were self-inflicted and not caused by the train wreck, Adams said.
"I think he was intent at that time of taking his own life, but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking his vehicle," Adams said.
Adams said Alvarez has an arrest record for unspecified drug violations and described the suspect as "distraught and remorseful, but cooperative."
Adams said more than 100 people were injured in the crash, which occurred shortly after 6 a.m.
"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley, told The Associated Press. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half."
"It was a complete nightmare," she said.
Passenger Carol Smith, 50, who was unharmed, told Reuters she was on her way to work and had just stopped reading her newspaper.
"All of a sudden, the train pulls the brakes and jerks and the lights went out," she told Reuters. "I walked by a lot of people who were lying on the tracks and couldn't move."
A spokeswoman for the commuter line, Metrolink, said one of its trains hit the car on the railroad tracks, ran into another Metrolink train and crashed into a parked Union Pacific train.
A law enforcement official identified one of the dead as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran, who was on his way to work.
Chris Gray, chief of the Glendale Fire Department, said more than 75 agencies are involved in the rescue and recovery, including some from Pasadena and Burbank.
Videotape shows Metrolink passenger train cars on their sides with shattered windows and the metal sheeting peeled backward and crushed inward.
The footage also shows several overturned orange Union Pacific rail cars.
Because commuter trains are involved it is difficult to determine who the passengers are and how many had boarded, Gray said.
Each Metrolink train had three passenger cars and one diesel locomotive, a Metrolink spokesman said. The maximum speed in the area is 79 miles per hour, he said, but the trains were likely traveling slower due to their proximity to a nearby station.
Southbound Metrolink train No. 100, which originates in Moorpark and terminates at Union Station, has an average ridership of 200-250, according to the train line. Northbound Metrolink train No. 901, which originates in Union Station and terminates in downtown Burbank, carries from 30-50 passengers.
Metrolink is Southern California's regional commuter rail service and is in its 12th year of operation. It operates seven routes through a six-county, 512 route-mile network.
The National Transportation and Safety Board will take over the investigation. Relatives can call (818) 548-6464 for additional information.
Worst in almost six years
Wednesday's crash is the worst rail accident in the United States since March 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Illinois, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100, according to AP.
Earlier this month, a freight train collided with a parked train in Graniteville, South Carolina, killing nine people and injuring more than 200 others, most of them sickened by a toxic cloud of chlorine gas.
At least three serious train crashes have occurred in Southern California in the last three years.
In June 2003, a runaway train crashed in Commerce, obliterating two houses and slightly injuring 13 people.
Six months earlier, one person died and 32 others were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a pickup truck at a railroad crossing and derailed in Burbank.
And in April 2002, a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train during morning rush hour in Orange County, killing two people and injuring dozens.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/26/train.derailment/index.html
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 5:14 PM EST (2214 GMT)
GLENDALE, California (CNN) -- A suicidal man will face murder charges after parking his vehicle on tracks Wednesday, causing a commuter train collision that killed at least 10 people outside Los Angeles, officials said.
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual who was suicidal," said Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams.
The suspect, identified as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, got out of the Jeep Cherokee before impact and watched the collision, Adams said.
The Compton, California, resident is in custody and will be charged with one count of homicide for each death resulting from the incident, Adams said.
Before being taken into custody, the suspect was treated for superficial wounds that were self-inflicted and not caused by the train wreck, Adams said.
"I think he was intent at that time of taking his own life, but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking his vehicle," Adams said.
Adams said Alvarez has an arrest record for unspecified drug violations and described the suspect as "distraught and remorseful, but cooperative."
Adams said more than 100 people were injured in the crash, which occurred shortly after 6 a.m.
"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley, told The Associated Press. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half."
"It was a complete nightmare," she said.
Passenger Carol Smith, 50, who was unharmed, told Reuters she was on her way to work and had just stopped reading her newspaper.
"All of a sudden, the train pulls the brakes and jerks and the lights went out," she told Reuters. "I walked by a lot of people who were lying on the tracks and couldn't move."
A spokeswoman for the commuter line, Metrolink, said one of its trains hit the car on the railroad tracks, ran into another Metrolink train and crashed into a parked Union Pacific train.
A law enforcement official identified one of the dead as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran, who was on his way to work.
Chris Gray, chief of the Glendale Fire Department, said more than 75 agencies are involved in the rescue and recovery, including some from Pasadena and Burbank.
Videotape shows Metrolink passenger train cars on their sides with shattered windows and the metal sheeting peeled backward and crushed inward.
The footage also shows several overturned orange Union Pacific rail cars.
Because commuter trains are involved it is difficult to determine who the passengers are and how many had boarded, Gray said.
Each Metrolink train had three passenger cars and one diesel locomotive, a Metrolink spokesman said. The maximum speed in the area is 79 miles per hour, he said, but the trains were likely traveling slower due to their proximity to a nearby station.
Southbound Metrolink train No. 100, which originates in Moorpark and terminates at Union Station, has an average ridership of 200-250, according to the train line. Northbound Metrolink train No. 901, which originates in Union Station and terminates in downtown Burbank, carries from 30-50 passengers.
Metrolink is Southern California's regional commuter rail service and is in its 12th year of operation. It operates seven routes through a six-county, 512 route-mile network.
The National Transportation and Safety Board will take over the investigation. Relatives can call (818) 548-6464 for additional information.
Worst in almost six years
Wednesday's crash is the worst rail accident in the United States since March 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Illinois, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100, according to AP.
Earlier this month, a freight train collided with a parked train in Graniteville, South Carolina, killing nine people and injuring more than 200 others, most of them sickened by a toxic cloud of chlorine gas.
At least three serious train crashes have occurred in Southern California in the last three years.
In June 2003, a runaway train crashed in Commerce, obliterating two houses and slightly injuring 13 people.
Six months earlier, one person died and 32 others were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a pickup truck at a railroad crossing and derailed in Burbank.
And in April 2002, a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train during morning rush hour in Orange County, killing two people and injuring dozens.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/26/train.derailment/index.html
