The death toll in the collision of two Metrolink commuter trains near Glendale has hit 10 and could rise, with nearly 200 injured in the early Wednesday crash, according to news reports.
Authorities said the crash was the result of an aborted suicide attempt by 25-year-old Compton resident Juan Alvarez, who they alleged parked his Jeep Grand Cherokee on one of the Metrolink tracks, fleeing the vehicle just before the collision.
Police arrested Alvarez as he attempted to leave the scene, and he was expected to be charged with 10 counts of murder, authorities said. Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams said Alvarez was distraught over the damage he allegedly caused.
Among the dead was Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran of the force who was heading to work from the Simi Valley home he shared with his wife and two children.
The two rail lines affected by the crash connected Union Station in downtown Los Angeles with Burbank and Moorpark and were expected to remain closed for at least the remainder of the day as emergency response units from Glendale and L.A. tended to the wounded in a nearby triage center.
Injured passengers were taken by dozens of ambulances to at least 20 hospitals, according to the reports.
One of the commuter trains was propelled into a Union Pacific Corp. locomotive, which was parked overnight on a side track, said Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley.
The train was to haul rocks to the Santa Barbara area where the company was repairing damaged tracks leading from the rail yards east of downtown L.A., up the coast to Oakland. Union Pacific was administering the repairs by day and hauling freight along the route at night, said Bromley, who added that Metrolink owns both of the tracks involved in the crash, which occurred just before 6 a.m.
L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca told reporters Alvarez’s SUV was struck by one of the commuter trains at a crossing near San Fernando Road and Chevy Chase Drive in the vicinity of Atwater Village. That collision led to a chain reaction that caused one of the trains to derail and smash into the Union Pacific train. A second Metrolink train was then struck.
The Metrolink trains involved in the collision were the 901 from Union Station to Burbank and the 100 bound for Union Station from Moorpark.
Police and firefighters arrived on the scene soon after the crash, which resulted in a small fire. Television reports showed many of the injured waiting for treatment.
News reports quoted train passengers as saying they flew into the air when the collision occurred. Several described a sharp grinding noise just before the collision.
George Touma, 19, of Burbank, said he was called by his mother, who was on one of the Metrolink trains.
“She told me she was bleeding in the head and her arm was really hurting, Touma told the Associated Press. “She said she remembered hearing sequential loud noises and then somebody pulled her out of the train while it was burning. She was in a panicked mode and now she’s not picking up.”
Firefighters picked through twisted wreckage scattered across the tracks and carried injured passengers from the trains to a triage center set up in a parking lot.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said federal authorities would be part of the investigation because interstate freight trains were involved.
