(The following story by Jason Kandel appeared on the Whittier Daily News website on May 4. Bruce Gray and Charles Wright are members of BLET Division 20 in Los Angeles.)
LOS ANGELES — In gripping testimony, Metrolink engineer Bruce Gray described publicly Tuesday for the first time his desperate effort to alert passengers moments before his commuter train slammed into an SUV at high speed and derailed, sending bodies flying.
Gray, the first witness at the preliminary hearing for accused murderer Juan Manuel Alvarez, recalled the panic that swept through the train last Jan. 26 as it hurtled out of control.
“It was like an explosion,’ said Gray, who suffered broken bones in his back. “I saw people flying and parts of the train coming apart, and my back was slammed against the seat.’
Gray, who suffered serious back injuries including broken bones, was one of six witnesses for the prosecution who recalled violent and disturbing details of the deadliest train crash in the United States since 1999.
Alvarez, 26, of Compton, is accused of causing the crash that killed 11 people and injured more than 180 others. He allegedly parked his SUV on the tracks with the intention of killing himself but then changed his mind and walked away when the vehicle became stuck.
The preliminary hearing, which could last three days, will determine whether he faces trial. He has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of murder, including the special circumstance allegations of multiple murder, train wrecking and arson.
Prosecutors have not decided if they will seek the death penalty.
Alvarez sat quietly during the hearing in his yellow-and-blue jail jumpsuit. He occasionally furrowed his brow and wrote notes using a pencil. He remains in isolation at Twin Towers Jail without bail, said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff’s spokesman.
In his testimony, Gray said it was still dark that morning when he noticed the outline of a vehicle, but did not see any lights.
“As I approached Chevy Chase I saw a reflector in the middle of the two tracks,’ he said. “That caught my attention. As I focused on it, I recognized an outline of a vehicle stopped on the tracks.’
He immediately put the train in emergency, and walked through the cars.
“I told whoever was listening to hang on.’
He described one passenger’s eyes as “big as softballs.’
“They (the passengers) had little time to do anything. It was clear in my mind that we were going to hit.’
As fire began to break out from the ceiling, he said, he clicked into survival mode. Even though he felt excruciating pain in his back, he realized he had to save himself and others.
“We can’t wait for help,’ he said he told a woman who was lying on top of him. “We need to get to safety. If we did not move, we’d be consumed by fire.’
He went to use the train’s radio system to dial for help, but realized that it along with “the first 20 to 30 feet of the train was missing.’ So he dialed his dispatchers using his cell phone.
Charles Wright, the engineer on northbound Train 901 that runs between Burbank and Union Station, said he noticed sparks coming from Train 100 and feared catastrophe as it appeared to have gone onto a siding where a freight train locomotive had been parked.
“Him going into the siding was freaky enough,’ he said. “I knew he was in huge trouble.’
Then he felt a “huge buffeting, bam, a huge jolt,’ as the train hit his.
He radioed for his conductor, Tom Ormiston, but he got no reply. Ormiston died in the crash.
During the afternoon session at the downtown Criminal Courts Building, Douglas Ross, who works at a salvage yard near the crash site, testified that he saw someone who he believed to be Alvarez wearing a gray poncho get out of his truck and pour liquid from a water bottle onto his vehicle, before taking off down the track and disappearing.
He said he immediately thought that the person he saw was the person who caused the train wreck. “I basically put two and two together,’ he said.
Witness Edward Branch, a colleague of Ross, who was waiting for the train to pass at the rail crossing on Chevy Chase, said that seconds before impact, he saw someone run from the passenger’s side of the truck to a gate, raise his arms and fall to his knees.
Glendale Police Officer Andrea Serafin testified that she responded to the scene to help victims, and wound up finding Alvarez’s wallet containing a Washington Mutual bank card, an insurance card, and a social security card at the crash site. It was booked into evidence.
“That was one of the first things that I found when I was aiding one of the victims,’ she said. “I thought that it could possibly belong to the victim that I was aiding at the time.’