Dozens hurt after Southern California commuter train crashes, then derails ... - New York Daily News
Thirty people were injured, four critically, in a Southern California commuter train crash Tuesday morning caused by a truck driver who turned onto the railroad tracks, officials said. All four double-decker cars of the Metrolink train derailed when it plowed into Ramirez's Ford F-450 pickup truck, which was towing a 12-foot-long trailer full of equipment, at a rural track crossing near Oxnard. The crash comes three weeks to the day a Metro-North train in Westchester County smashed into an SUV on the tracks in Valhalla, N. Y. , leaving six people dead and a dozen injured. In the nation’s latest rail disaster, the truck and trailer became stuck when the Ramirez got confused and made a right turn onto the tracks instead of the street, police said. The train, carrying 48 passengers and three crew members, was going 79 mph when it hit the truck at 5:44 a. m. at the intersection of Fifth St. and Rice Ave. “Our preliminary assessment of this collision shows that the produce truck was driving southbound on Rice Avenue and as it got to Fifth St. , it made a right turn,” said Oxnard Assistant Police Chief R. Jason Benites. “However, rather than make the right turn onto westbound Fifth St. , it actually turned onto the railroad tracks. Benites said Ramirez appeared “disoriented” and “very unsettled” when he was picked up by an Oxnard police officer shortly after the crash. Source: www.nydailynews.com
