2 Killed, 265 Wounded in Train Collision in California

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 24, 2002

2 Killed, 265 Wounded in Train Collision in California

Two people were killed and about 265 others injured Tuesday when a freight train crashed into a commuter train in southern California.

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Two people were killed and about 265 others injured Tuesday when a freight train crashed into a commuter train in southern California.

The collision took place in Placentia, about 56.3 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles in northwestern Orange County. The northbound freight train, traveling at about 50 kilometers per hour, hit head-on a Metrolink commuter train carrying 300 passengers at 8:16 a.m. local time. The commuter train stopped for a couple of minutes when it was hit.

Jim Amormino of the Orange County Police Department said one 48- year-old man was killed at the scene and another 59-year-old man died later from wounds at St. Jude's Hospital in Fullerton.

The scene was chaotic, as passengers aboard the commuter train were shocked and some passengers escaped by climbing out of the train windows. There was a tremendous amount of "walking wounded" and several patients on the ground were unable to move.

Fire-rescue personnel used ladders to get to injured people on the upper-level of one of the two-decker commuter rail cars. A triage unit had been set up beside the accident scene.

The cause of the collision remained unclear. Richard Russack, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the company that operates the stretch of rail where the accident occurred, said the freight train with 67 loaded containers was traveling south from Riverside to San Juan Capistrano when the accident took place.

Sharon Gavin, a spokeswoman for Metrolink, said that train tracks are regularly shared between Metrolink and Burlington Northern trains. He said Metrolink will provide buses for passengers affected by the crash.

This was second accident involving the commuter trains within one month. On April 8, a truck driver was killed when another southbound Metrolink train struck the truck when he was trying to make a U-turn on the railroad tracks. But none of the 115 passengers were hurt in the crash.

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