Coroner: More bodies in LA train wreckage

Several more bodies remain in the wreckage of a crashed commuter train, in addition to the 18 confirmed deaths already announced, a Los Angeles County coroner’s official said today.

Assistant coroner’s chief Ed Winter said recovery crews have still not been able to get into the lower level of a mangled two-level Metrolink passenger carriage, but they can see several bodies.

Winter said those bodies were not included in the 18 deaths which officials announced earlier today.

The Metrolink commuter train, carrying 222 people, collided head-on with a freight train on Friday afternoon in the Chatsworth area of the San Fernando Valley.

“It was horrendous,” said Leslie Burnstein, a psychologist who saw the collision from her home and rushed to pull victims from the wreckage. “Blood was everywhere. ... I heard people yelling, screaming in pain, begging for help.”

Early today, Fire Chief Dennis Barry said during a news conference that firefighters were still in the “rescue and extrication phase”.

The Union Pacific freight train’s engine was also turned onto its side, with the rest of the train splayed out like an accordion behind it.

The cause of the collision was under investigation. It was not clear how the two trains ended up heading toward each other on the same track.

Estimates of the number of people injured varied. Fire Captain Armando Hogan said there were 82 to 87 critically injured and 20 with minor injuries. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said about 135 people were injured.

“This is the worst accident I’ve ever seen,” Mr Villaraigosa said.

Fire Chief Dennis Barry said the Metrolink locomotive was deeply embedded into the passenger car.

“We have victims on top of victims,” he said.

One of the dead was a Los Angeles police officer, and on Friday night officers and sheriff’s deputies formed lines near the wreckage and saluted as a wrapped body was carried past.

The crash “made a terrible sound, like a bomb, a huge noise,” said Julio Pedraza, 35, who lives and works at a nearby horse boarding facility. He said he saw passengers emerging from the wreckage, and he and others helped the injured, one with skin peeling off his forehead.

“They were yelling for help and crying,” Mr Pedraza said in Spanish.

Firefighters treated the injured at three triage areas near the wreck, and helicopters flew in and out of a nearby landing area on medical evacuation flights.

Rescuers worked on top of the wreckage and through breaches in the passenger car to reach victims. Dazed and injured passengers sat on the ground and milled about on both sides of the tracks.

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said: “I do not know what caused the wreck. Obviously two trains are not supposed to be on the same track at the same time.” She broke down crying and was shaking.

The speed limit for freight and passenger trains on the stretch of track is 40 mph, Ms Tyrrell said, and if both trains were travelling at the limit they would hit with a combined total force of 80mph.

The area where the crash happened, which is used by freight and commuter trains, has a reputation for trouble, said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California.

Meshkati said the 18-mile stretch “has had a lot of crossing accidents, a lot of other accidents in the last 10 years”.

The worst disaster in Metrolink’s history happened on January 26 2005, in suburban Glendale, when a man parked a petrol-soaked vehicle on railroad tracks. A Metrolink train hit the vehicle and derailed, striking another Metrolink train travelling the other way, killing 11 people and injuring about 180 others. Juan Alvarez was convicted this year of murder for causing the crash.