Collision between Metrolink and BNSF this morning in Placentia, L.A.
A collision took place this morning at 8:16 between a 3-car Metrolink service and an eastbound BNSF stack train. There are 3 confirmed deceased and 250+ injuries.
Cab car 634 is wrecked (folded just in front of the rear truck) and the other two have jack knife damage.
Engine #'s on the BNSF are 5340 (lead), 5277 and 8209. Engine # on Metrolink is (I believe) 858
Posted by 1ring2bind (Member # 1571) on :
From the pictures, it looks like the two trains were on the same track. If they were going in opposite directions as reports indicate, it would appear that the MetroLink train was on the wrong track (left side). Does Amtrak still operate MetroLInk?
Posted by sfcajon (Member # 1451) on :
The WB 809 Metrolink was on the south track or #2 Main & was/should have been lined for the Olive Sub. to head for San Juan Capistrano thru Orange. The EB BNSF train was also on the #2 Main & should have been lined thru the Atwood xovers to the #1 Main to avoid the Metrolink. It would be pure speculation to say who/what was at fault til the NTSB report comes out.
Posted by Jess (Member # 1581) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jess: Collision between Metrolink and BNSF this morning in Placentia, L.A.
A collision took place this morning at 8:16 between a 3-car Metrolink service and an eastbound BNSF stack train. There are 3 confirmed deceased and 250+ injuries.
Cab car 634 is wrecked (folded just in front of the rear truck) and the other two have jack knife damage.
Engine #'s on the BNSF are 5340 (lead), 5277 and 8209. Engine # on Metrolink is (I believe) 858
I was wrong on the Metrolink engine #, it was actually 859
Posted by Jess (Member # 1581) on :
quote:Originally posted by sfcajon: The WB 809 Metrolink was on the south track or #2 Main & was/should have been lined for the Olive Sub. to head for San Juan Capistrano thru Orange. The EB BNSF train was also on the #2 Main & should have been lined thru the Atwood xovers to the #1 Main to avoid the Metrolink. It would be pure speculation to say who/what was at fault til the NTSB report comes out.
Thanks for the 'heads up' on this. I'm not going to speculate as to who is at fault. The respective operators and the NTSB along with the engineers and conductors of both trains will eventually sort this out....
Posted by transit383 (Member # 1488) on :
Does anyone have a link where I can see photos of this wreck?
Thanks.
Posted by irishchieftain (Member # 1473) on :
quote:Does anyone have a link where I can see photos of this wreck? Thanks
For more on this topic look at the Amtrak forum. There's a link there posted by Eric to a very interesting piece at TrainWeb.com which includes several pictures.
------------------ Any time could be train time! Ken V.
Seeing that this was a low speed collision, there was much damage to the Metrolink train. There was telescoping, buckling, and jacknifing to the commuter cars (with little or no damage to the BNSF locomotive).
This just shows how those double deck cars need to be improved upon. It seems that if the trains were moving any faster, cab 634 would have been completely crushed.
The photos show many ladders for the emergency crews to get into the train. Were the stairwells damaged in the wreck (I have never seen the interior of one of these cars- are there stairwells)? What type of emergency exits are on the top level?
Posted by sfcajon (Member # 1451) on :
The cars are in a sense tri-levels. Upper, lower & middle on the car ends. Stairwells connect w/ all three levels at each end. There are 20 emergency window exits- 16 0n each side(upper&lower) & 4 on the ends. Besides the side doors there are end doors. The latter may have been damaged by the collision. All things considered the cars faired pretty well. The cab car structure is built to locomotive standards so the cab didn't get crushed.
Posted by transit383 (Member # 1488) on :
The cab may not have been crushed (was the engineer hurt?), but the rear of the cab car telescoped into itself. The rest of the train seems to have accordioned, which is what is supposed to occur in a wreck (rather than telescoping). Overall, the train did well in the wreck. Keeping in mind though, that this was a low speed collision. Had either train been moving at a considerable rate of speed, the Metrolink train would have been crushed. Certainly the wide cab of the BNSF locomotive helped that engineer.
Posted by sfcajon (Member # 1451) on :
In cab cars, the engineers usually get out of the cab if they know a collision is impending. Haven't seen anything about engineer being hurt, just conductor who had time to warn the passengers.
Posted by Shane (Member # 1493) on :
Someone got pictures of the collision. ABC telvision just showed video of the collision---Gees Louise!. The southbound BNSF engineer ran an absolute red at the crossovers where the Metrolink was going to crossover to the other track. The Metrolink engineer is credited with saving lives because he saw the collision coming and ran back through the control car yelling at people to brace themselves. The freight train actually hit the commuter twice. The first time, it shoved it back then as it came to a stop, the freight train hit it again to shove the commuter 370 ft. backward.
Posted by sfcajon (Member # 1451) on :
Shane See my 1st post above. The Metrolink was supposed to go on the Olive sub at the switch just west of the Atwood xovers. For that to happen the frieght should have stopped at the contol signals just west of the xovers & Olive sub switch.
Posted by Shane (Member # 1493) on :
Having been an engineer, the only way two people can miss two signals is if they are studying the backs of their eyelids-----snoozin'! If you've been on a train all night, it gets very hard to stay awake at that time of morning though. I feel bad for everybody involved.
Posted by transit383 (Member # 1488) on :
The engineer of the Metrolink train saw the BNSF train on the same track and stopped his train. How hard would it have been to reverse the Metrolink train far enough so the BNSF train could have stopped safely?
Posted by jrr7 (Member # 1475) on :
Would you ask the engineer to stay in the unprotected cab and control the train while a heavy freight is unstoppably moving directly at him?
Such action would have certainly resulted in the engineer's death, and it may or may not have saved any passengers.
Posted by Shane (Member # 1493) on :
Could the engineer of the metrolink train have put the train in reverse? YES! However, if he put 'er into the big hole, he lost his PCS (pneumatic control switch) which dumped the throttle control, leaving the metro unable to back up until the PCS was recovered. What would I have done? probably the same thing he did! It was an extremely quick judgement call with 2 seconds to decide between backing up or saving as many passengers as you could. If he put it into full service, he still would have had throttle control, jamming it into reverse, then as the train slowed to a stop releasing the brakes and dumping the sand for all he was worth. Would this have prevented a collision? most likely. However, I can assure you that when you see another train coming at you on the same track, it is a pucker factor of about 10+, the only thing you can think about is getting the hell out of there---now!!