At 4:32 PM on Friday, September 12, a Metrolink commuter train in Chatsworth, CA, collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train resulting in the deaths of at least 26 people with 188 or more injured. The worst railroad accident in the U.S. in fifteen years, it’s possible that the number of dead and injured could climb higher as rescue personnel look for survivors in the wreckage. There were 222 people on the northbound Metrolink train headed from Los Angeles to Moorpark, a northwestern suburb, when the accident occurred in Chatsworth. There were two passengers, the conductor and engineer aboard the freight train.
The crash occurred on a long, curving stretch of track, and Metrolink officials stated the following day that early evidence indicated that the commuter train’s engineer failed to heed a trackside red light near a junction with a railroad siding. Federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are still sifting through the wreckage and gathering evidence, but a report issued the following Monday indicated that the commuter train’s engineer may have been sending and receiving cellular text messages shortly before the accident occurred.
Regular Metrolink commuters on the train said that the train usually stopped at the junction to wait for the freight train which came through at the same time each day heading to downtown Los Angeles. But on Friday the commuter train continued north without stopping which triggered an alarm at Metrolink’s dispatch center. A dispatcher called the train and successfully contacted the conductor moments before the trains collided. A young man claiming to have exchanged text messages with the commuter train’s engineer told reporters working for a local television station about them, and a reporter from the station discovered a text message allegedly signed by the engineer and dated Friday at 4:22 approximately ten minutes before the crash.
Many of the dead and injured were in the leading coach of the passenger train when the accident occurred and were crushed by the impact of the commuter train’s engine colliding with the engine of the oncoming freight train. Both trains were derailed in the accident, and shortly after impact a fire started in the leading passenger coach which made rescue attempts very dangerous and difficult. The NTSB has sent eleven investigators to the scene of the accident who plan to issue a report with their findings when their investigation into this accident is complete.
