Metrolink, freight trains scrape each other in Rialto

A Metrolink train and a freight train scraped each other around noon on Thursday in Rialto, but no serious injuries were immediately reported.

The Metrolink train, number 306, was going east, leaving Union Station for San Bernardino. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train was going west, crossing in the area of Lilac Avenue.

"No matter what happened it's not acceptable," said Keith Millhouse, the vice president of the Metrolink Board and a Moorpark City Councilman. "We'll have to figure this out. I have a zero tolerance for any type of incident, no matter how minor it is."

So far, the Rialto Police Dept. says, there are "no major injuries."

Five of the 15 people on the Metrolink train say they're in pain and paramedics are attending to them. The three or four people on the freight train are not saying they're in pain, said Lt. Joe Cirilo.

He said officials do not yet know how the accident happened.

“It’s ongoing,” he said.

TV footage shows the two trains upright on the tracks, with no visible signs of damage. A few ambulances were also on scene, but there was no active search and rescue effort.

Metrolink's Twitter alert said that the San Bernardino line will run only from Los Angeles to Rancho Cucamonga because of the crash.

The accident comes two months after a catastrophic crash involving a Metrolink and freight train in Chatsworth.

In the Sept. 12 accident, a Metrolink train failed to heed a warning light and crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board say that just before the crash, the engineer of Metrolink 111 was sending and receiving text messages on his cellphone. Twenty-five people died and 135 were injured in the most deadly rail accident in recent state history.

Engineer Robert M. Sanchez sent a text message at 4:22 p.m., just before his train slammed into the Union Pacific train in Chatsworth.  He also received a message about a minute earlier, the agency said.

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Sept. 12 catastrophe, said Tuesday afternoon that he did not know if the agency would be dispatching a team from Washington to probe the accident in Rialto. Typically, the safety board investigates major rail accidents involving fatalities.

KTLA has live video of the incident.

UPDATE: The two trains collided in an area of single track just west of the Metrolink station in Rialto. The westbound Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight train was pulling onto a siding when the eastbound Metrolink train hit the tail end of the freight train, said BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent.

“We were cleared to go into the siding,” Kent said. “It had almost cleared the mainline when it was struck.”

Kent did not know whether the freight train had been cleared by a signal or dispatcher.

Metrolink owns that section of track and oversees the operation of trains on it, according to an agency map of the Metrolink rail system.

The BNSF freight train, which was headed from Barstow to Rialto, was being pulled by four locomotives and had 102 freight cars with two more locomotives at the end of the train. The Metrolink train hit the 96^th car in the train, a flat car carrying iron, Kent said. She said the 96^th through 102^nd cars sustained damage but that it didn’t appear to be major.

None of the BNSF crew members suffered any injuries, Kent said. None of the freight train cars derailed.

-- Jia-Rui Chong and Steve Hymon

Comments

[Greg Gritton]

Instead of adding a 2nd engineman, adding automatic train protection (ATP) of some sort would probably be a better solution. A modern ATP system will require a train to slow down before the end of a siding and wont allow it to pass the end unless overridden. And, while it is possible for ATP to fail, computer based failures tend to be different and occur at different times than people based "failures". Adding a 2nd engineman adds another person to the mix, one who might not see the things the 1st person didn't see, or who many times might make the same decisions. It would help, but not as much as ATP is likely to help.

[bob wallace]

as an ex railroad man, I can visualize what happened: the metrolink engineer anticipated that the freight train would be in the clear by the time he arrived at the turnout. therefore, instead of slowing in preparation to stop (he would have passed a signal indicating to do that), he came on too fast to stop in time. he ran past a yellow 'approach' signal without slowing properly, and in so doing, he ran the red signal that was protecting the freight train. similar to last months 'accident'. geez, don't metrolink engineers get any training? looks like a second engineman should be required on metrolink trains.

[Andy Eppink]

Holy cow. What next?. Time for a standdown like they say in the Navy to take stock of things and try to figure out what's happening, and fix the prob(s), a tall order the way things are looking.