Metrolink collision: Why was a pickup truck on the tracks? - Christian Science Monitor
Federal investigators were trying to determine why a driver abandoned his pickup truck on railroad tracks in Southern California, triggering a fiery crash with a commuter train that derailed three cars and injured dozens. "It was not stuck, it was not bottomed out on the track or something like that," National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said at a media briefing late Tuesday at the crash site in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of downtown Los... Officials had said immediately after the crash that the driver got stuck on the tracks before dawn. Eight people were admitted to the hospital of the 30 people originally examined, officials said. The truck driver, Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, 54, of Yuma, Arizona, was found about a half-mile away 45 minutes later, said Jason Benites, an assistant chief of the Oxnard Police Department. His Ford F-450 pickup was pushed some 300 feet down the tracks and ended up on the other side of the rail crossing, Sumwalt said. Passenger Joel Bingham, a railroad aficionado and frequent passenger, said many of those aboard the train were asleep and shocked awake when the loud boom first happened. Source: www.csmonitor.com
