Articles Posted in Train Accidents

An Amtrak train accident in Chatsworth, Los Angeles occurred on October 18, 2018 when a woman was struck by the train. The train was on its way from San Diego to San Luis Obispo when the accident occurred.

According to ABC 7 News, the woman was on the tracks when she was hit by the Amtrak passenger train near a tunnel along the 10300 block of N. Shadow Oaks Drive. Emergency personnel responded to the scene and the woman was “hoisted by a helicopter and transported to a hospital in unknown condition.”

At the time of this Los Angeles train accident, there were 107 people aboard the train. Train officials reported that there were no injuries to the passengers on the train. The accident caused Ventura County trains to experience significant delays.

According to The Daily Bulletin, a woman was seriously injured when she was struck by a train in Jurupa Valley. The woman was horseback riding near Van Buren Boulevard and Limonite Avenue when she was hit by the train. Officials described the woman as in her 20s. Apparently, she was riding her horse near the tracks around 5:30 p.m. when she was hit by the passing train. She was rushed to the hospital for serious injuries and immediately underwent surgery.

Investigators are looking into what may have happened in this train accident. They hope to determine the exact cause of the accident. They have asked anyone with information on the accident to call the Jurupa Valley sheriff’s station at 951-955-2600.  Continue Reading

On Saturday, March 28, 2015, at almost 11 a.m, after the downtown bound Metro Expo Line train pulled out of its station in Exposition Park, a driver in a silver Hyundai sedan turned left towards a USC campus entrance gate and collided with the Metro train. The Los Angeles train crash, consisting of three (3) light-rail train cars filled with passengers, caused two of the Metro rail cars to be pushed onto Exposition Blvd. and caused twelve (12) people to be hurt, one reportedly hurt critically.

Such collisions, most unfortunately, are not uncommon. The system was designed so that three (3) of the six (6) rail lines of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority actually sometimes run along surface streets. As a result, collisions at surface street crossings are NOT uncommon.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Saturday’s collision was at least the 18th crash in the last twelve (12) months between cars and Metro rail train cars; and at least four (4) of those occurred on this same Expo Line that has caused the most concern.

Shockingly, another line, the Blue Line, between downtown and Long Beach, has had more than 120 people killed in accidents involving cars, trucks and pedestrians since it commenced operation in 1990. As a result, it is one of the deadliest light-rail train lines in the entire United States.

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A Metrolink train accident in Oxnard this morning has caused many serious injuries to the occupants of the train, including the conductor. The accident apparently occurred after a produce or farm equipment truck got stuck on the railway and was struck by the commuter train. The Metrolink accident occurred near the intersection of East 5th Street and South Rice Avenue in Oxnard, Ventura County, California.

According to the Ventura County Star, after the train accident, authorities were able to locate the driver of the truck between one and two miles from the location of the train crash. The driver was not placed under arrest, but was taken in for questioning. Fortunately, it appears that the train was equipped with new safety “crash energy management” system that may have prevented much more serious injuries or deaths from this crash.

As of now, it appears that the driver of the truck turned onto the tracks, while pulling a trailer, and became stuck on the tracks. By the time the train engineer applied the brakes, it was too late as the heavy train, which was traveling approximately 79 miles per hour, according to the Los Angeles Times, needed more time to stop.

The Metrolink train was traveling to downtown Los Angeles and had five cars with 51 total passengers. 28 passengers were reportedly taken to the hospital right after the incident.

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A train collided with a car in the Little Tokyo area of downtown Los Angeles this morning, causing a serious hip injury to the driver of the vehicle. According to the Los Angeles Times, the train that hit the car was an LA County Metro Gold Line train.

Fortunately, nobody was killed in this downtown Los Angeles train accident. It is not yet clear what exactly caused this particular collision. It is possible that the car was making a turn and did not see the train coming or that the car stalled while on the tracks. Investigators will also have to look into whether all appropriate safety and warning measures were taken by the gold line train.

As we continually see, whenever trains, buses and commuter cars are operating in the same areas, there is potential for disaster, especially in cases of human error. This is why it is necessary for the operators of trains and other common carriers to exercise an additional level of safety and precaution while operating. It is also imperative that all appropriate warning and safety measures be taken to prevent pedestrians or cars from being struck by trains and buses. This means clearly marking the areas where a train or bus may be passing and operating at slower speeds when going through busy areas.

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A woman was hit by a Metro Expo Line train in Los Angeles on Sunday. Fortunately, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the train accident injuries, while not defined, were not considered to be life threatening. The train versus pedestrian accident occurred near downtown Los Angeles, on Vermont, near the University of Southern California.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles train accident resulted in a track closure of only about one half hour. Investigators have not yet disclosed the cause of the train accident in Los Angeles. The woman who was hit by the Metro train, who was taken to the hospital, will have to be interviewed by police so that they can put her side of the story into the report that will be produced.

After a train accident like this, involving injuries to a pedestrian, an investigation is always conducted to determine what caused the accident. In our experience with working on train accident injury cases, we have seen incidences where the train conductor is negligent, sometimes for not checking his or her side view mirrors before leaving a platform. In other incidences, there may be a safety procedure that is ignored or a safety mechanism that does not function properly, leading to a train crash. We also have seen situations where pedestrians have attempted suicide by stepping in front of a moving train.

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According to the Los Angeles Times, a Metro Blue Line Train collided with a car today in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles train accident occurred shortly before 10 o’clock this morning when the Metro Blue Line train struck a passenger car. It appears that the train accident occurred between the San Pedro and Grand metro stations, on East Washington Boulevard, at its intersection with Maple Avenue.

The Los Angeles train crash has resulted in injuries to at least 13 people, including the driver of the car that was hit by the train. Fortunately, the train accident injuries to the sole occupant of the car were described as minor by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Of the 12 people who were reportedly taken to local hospitals, two of the accident victims were described as being in serious condition, while the others are in fair condition. The exact severity of the Los Angeles train accident injuries is currently unknown and we hope that none of the injuries are permanent or life threatening.

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