Chatsworth Metrolink Injury Fact Sheet By Metrolink Accident Attorneys

Chatsworth—The Chatsworth Metrolink injury fact sheet is a comprehensive itemization of events brought to you by Metrolink accident attorneys as follows: It has been stated that the engineer did not stop for a red light and the Metrolink train crash with the Union Pacific freight train has left 25 victims dead, along with at least 135 injured victims. This is the worst rail accident in four decades in California according to Metrolink accident attorneys, and California recorded history.

It would be nearly 3:00 Saturday afternoon approximately 22 ½ hours after the crash that rescue workers would bring the last victim out of the wreckage. The coroner was able to release the identities of 19 of the fatally injured passengers, there were three they did not release pending notification of the next of kin and one male passenger that had yet to be identified.

The hospitals were filled with 135 injured passengers from the wrecked train, of these there were 45 passengers that sustained critical injuries, there were 40 that were in serious condition and 50 that sustained minor injuries during the crash. The first assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department stated that he and his officers were at the Glendale crash and this was far worse because of the damage that the two trains slamming together did to the engines and cars.

In statements from Metrolink the engineer, the Chatsworth Metrolink accident fact sheet records that one their commuter trains did not stop for a red light once the train had left the Chatsworth station and was heading north at an approximate speed of 40 miles per hour. The train was then heading for the head on collision with the Union Pacific freight train. The spokes woman for Metrolink Denise Tyrrell stated that Metrolink believed from the evidence they had that it was the engineer from commuter train 111 that did not stop. Her words were “when two trains are in the same place at the same time somebody’s made a terrible mistake.”

There was a warning call from the Metrolink dispatch center, when it was alerted of an error by the electronic warning system in the tracks. Their call was answered by the conductor that survived the crash, who stated the crash had already occurred. As train 111 ran the red light it triggered a signal which then showed up on the control screen in the dispatch center, according to Francisco Oaxaca a spokesman for Metrolink. He went on to say that monitors saw that their was a failure on the double track passing area that is located less than a half mile from where the trains met head on.

When Tyrrell in her statement to the public that the engineer failed to stop for the red light stated that he was an employee of a subcontractor that Metrolink has used since 1998, the contractor was Veolia. This was a rallying call to all Metrolink accident attorney in California.

In her statements Tyrrell also denied claims that the engineer might have been text messaging moments prior to the crash. This claim was in question after two teenagers told the press that they had been text messaging with the engineer approximately one minute before the crash. They also stated that they have put a memorial tribute to the engineer on YouTube.

Tyrrell stated that Metrolink had determined how the crash was caused by reviewing computer data and dispatch records and investigators learned the train had failed to stop for a red light.

Tyrrell who appeared shaken and close to tears said that they did not know how this type of error could have occurred. At the crash scene from Friday after the time of the crash until Saturday afternoon cranes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment was used to open the metal of the damaged train car, rescue workers also hung a yellow tarp to keep news crews and news helicopters from having a view of the deceased passengers. Once the rescue workers had finished the sent in cadaver dogs to check for any passengers that may have still been on the train, the dogs gave no signals of finding anyone.

The rescue workers carried out the deceased on stretchers and taken to the Chatsworth Hills Academy where they had a command post setup. A reunification center was set up at the Chatsworth High School where families were told their family members condition and the families of the deceased passengers were notified.

One of these families was the Magdelano family whose 19-year-old daughter Aida was among the passengers that perished on the train. In a statement by her brother Juan Magdelano, he said she was a very loving and kind person and was attending California State University at Northridge. He went on to say that she was the first in the family to attend college and that her parents are farmworkers. The day of the crash Aida Magdelano was returning home from classes at the University, where she was studying sociology.

Another of the named deceased passengers was Los Angeles Police Department Officer Spree Desha, a seven year veteran of the police force who recently transferred to another department and began riding the train to work and home.

One of the injured passengers was John Ebert a 54-year-old Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy that is a resident of Thousand Oaks. He is currently recovering from a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and other injuries. The deputy is credited with helping other injured passengers out of the wreck despite his own injuries. According to Steve Whitmore a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Ebert is in Intensive Care but will recover from his injuries.

The Sunday Daily News held a full page that Metrolink used to apologize to the families for the crash and give their sympathies to the people the crash affected according to reports by the Chatsworth Metrolink accident fact sheet.
The Los Angeles Mayor and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger both visited the crash site and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked that the local churches observe a moment of silence during the Sunday services. He also asked that their prayer services honored the victims of the Friday Metrolink crash.

The governor stated he and his wife send their prayers and that he could only describe the crash as a tragedy.

The Metrolink 111 crash was one of the deadliest crashes and is compared to the commuter train crash of 1972 in Chicago in which 45 people died, along with the 1993 Amtrak crash. The Amtrak crash that took place in Mobile Alabama took the lives of 47 people.

Metrolink began its service in the Southern California area in 1992 and between Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties they have over 45,000 commuters on weekday trains.

In another Metrolink crash that involved a freight train injured over 260 passengers and 3 passengers sustained fatal injuries, in 2002.

Again in January of 2005 there was a Metrolink crash that killed 11 people and injured approximately 180 passengers. This crash involved the gasoline soaked SUV of Juan Alvarez who was recently convicted of murder and sentenced to life for the deaths of the crash victims. Alvarez pleaded that he was suicidal at the time of the crash and he had planned to commit suicide, the jury did not believe that was his motive. The Chatsworth Metrolink injury fact sheet will be updated when additional facts are learned by Metrolink accident attorneys.