Category : Train Accidents
December 9th, 2010
Will they truly be "Crash-Proof"?
Two years after the devastating Metrolink train accidents in Chatsworth that killed 25 people, Southern California’s commuter rail agency has introduced its new fleet of crash-proof train cars. According to Metrolink officials, these cars are the safest in the country.
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September 22nd, 2010
A Simi Valley Congressman has introduced legislation in Congress that would increase the $200 million liability cap in certain train accidents. The legislation has been sponsored by Representative Elton Gallegly, and it will increase the cap from $200 million to $500 million. If this bill becomes law, it would be retroactively impact the Metrolink accident in Chatsworth near Los Angeles in 2008 that killed 25 people. Metrolink earlier this month agreed to pay a maximum of $200 million in settlement of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits arising out of the accident.
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August 27th, 2010
Metrolink and Connex has reached an agreement.
Metrolink and Connex Railroad have accepted a maximum $200 million liability for the Chatsworth train accident in 2008 that killed 25 people. Under federal law, $200 million is the maximum liability for a train accident. Metrolink and Connex Railroad filed court papers this week accepting that liability, and the court now must approve the settlement and distribute the money to the victims.
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August 3rd, 2010
According to the NTSB the accident is linked to the lack of oversight.
Repeatedly disregarding warning signs, ignoring safety issues and poor oversight contributed to the Washington DC Metro rail accident last year that killed nine people. Those findings came from a report by the National Transportation Safety Board after the agency completed its investigation into the rail accident. In June 2009, a Metro rail train crashed into a second train that was stopped at a station just outside Washington DC. Eight passengers on the train as well as the train operator, were killed in the accident.
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May 3rd, 2010
Metrolink is unveiling crash-proof cars on their trains as part of an ongoing program to increase passenger safety and prevent the kind of catastrophic injuries and fatalities that resulted from the Chatsworth Metrolink crash of 2008. It’s the first time such cars will be used at any train agency in the country.
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April 2nd, 2010
On July 1, Amtrak will take over operations of Metrolink trains in Southern California, a direct consequence of the deadly Chatsworth 2008 Metrolink Accident. That agency has scheduled personality tests for engineers and conductors. Amtrak will find the going tough as Metrolink workers unions have expressed their opposition to any such personality profiling.
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January 22nd, 2010
The National Transportation Safety Board has pointed to the train engineer as the main factor to blame for the Metrolink train accident near Los Angeles in 2008 that killed 25 people.
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December 24th, 2009
An accident involving a Metrolink commuter train and a passenger car in Los Angeles has left at least 6 people injured. According to the Los Angeles Times, the crash was the result of a chain reaction. A Toyota Camry had pulled over to the side of the road to let a police car pass by when it was rear ended by a pickup truck. The impact sent the pickup truck flipping, and it landed on the railroad track nearby. The truck then was stuck by a Metrolink commuter train.
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December 21st, 2009
California Metrolink accident lawyers and rail safety advocates around the state have been increasing pressure on Metrolink to enhance passenger safety. Those calls come after two tragic accidents killed 36 people and injured dozens of others. In 2005, a Metrolink crashed into a parked SUV on the tracks in Glendale. Eleven passengers were killed in that accident, although the SUV driver survived. Then last year, a Metrolink commuter train crashed head on into a Union Pacific freight train, after the Metrolink engineer allegedly missed a stop sign, and ended up on the same track as the freight train. That deadly tragedy left 25 people dead, and more than 130 severely injured. Both these tragedies have highlighted the risk that passengers in Metrolink train cars are exposed to during a collision.
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December 3rd, 2009
It doesn’t look like Metrolink’s efforts at cleaning up house in the wake of the deadly Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth, have been very effective. The agency is once against investigating yet another red light violation in which an engineer failed to stop at a stop signal.
According to Los Angeles Times, federal regulators are also reviewing the incident which occurred on the San Bernardino line near downtown Los Angeles. Apparently, the engineer missed the red light, and identified the problem in time. He was then able to stop his train before it ran through a switch that would have likely placed the train on a collision path with an oncoming train. It is the fourth such red light violation since the terrible tragedy at Chatsworth killed 25 people last year.
On September 12th 2008, engineer Robert Sanchez ran a red light that ultimately placed his Metrolink commuter train on the same tracks as an oncoming Union Pacific freight train. The head-on collision that resulted was so severe that the freight train’s locomotive crashed through and into the Metrolink train’s first car.
Twenty five people died, many of them in the first car. More than 120 people suffered serious injuries, and many of them continue to struggle with rebuilding their lives and moving on. For these survivors and the families of those who died as well as California Metrolink accident lawyers, it seems inexcusable that just a year after that tragedy, the same kind of violations continue to occur so frequently.
Metrolink‘s board of directors has also expressed its frustration at more such serious red light violations. The frustration is aggravated by the fact that the agency has launched safety enhancement processes since the tragedy to root out potential risk factors. Metrolink has assigned additional engineers on some trains, but the train involved in this most recent violation did not have an additional engineer in the cab. The agency has also been facing pressure from engineers’ unions that oppose the new video camera surveillance systems in the train’s control rooms.
According to some of Metrolink’s board members, it may not be possible to eliminate red light violations completely, because you can’t totally eradicate the possibility of human errors on trains that are still run by humans. However, California train accident lawyers will have to disagree. There is no excuse for not enforcing your rules strongly enough. Besides, Metrolink does have other options that can bring down red light violation risks to zero. A collision avoidance system installed on its tracks could automatically slam the brakes on the train if it runs a red light and ends up on a collision path with another train.
The investigation into the most recent violation is the first to benefit from footage from the surveillance video cameras on the trains. One good outcome – if you can call it that – of the most recent violation is that it has strengthened the board’s resolve to continue with the surveillance video cameras.
It doesn’t look like Metrolink’s efforts of cleaning up in the wake of the deadly Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth, have been very effective. The agency is once against investigating yet another red light violation in which an engineer failed to stop at a stop signal.
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