(The following story by Alison Hewitt appeared on the Whittier Daily News website on January 21.)
INDUSTRY, Calif. — An alleged drunken driver was nearly killed in a train crash Sunday when his sport utility vehicle flipped onto the rails, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
An alert bystander saw the accident and pulled Jose Lopez, 25, from the overturned vehicle shortly before a Union Pacific train sent the SUV flying.
Ironically, Omar Rodriguez, 26, who rescued the allegedly inebriated Lopez, saw the front of his car crunched when Lopez’s destroyed SUV sailed though the air and landed beside his car.
If Rodriguez hadn’t pulled Lopez from the SUV, the driver probably would not have survived, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Rinden, who responded to the scene. Lopez appeared too drunk to have escaped on his own, Rinden said.
“We smelled the alcohol on him. He was kind of incoherent and slow. He had bloodshot eyes. He was staggering and swaying,” Rinden said.
Lopez’s vehicle, a black Ford Explorer, was ripped apart in the crash. The train sheared off the roof, knocked off tires and rained debris all over, Rinden said.
“His car was completely totaled,” Rinden said. “It looked like a ball of metal. It was just sitting there on the side of the tracks. The entire roof of the car was torn off in the collision. You could still tell it was a black car, but the only way to tell it was a Ford Explorer was by running the license plate. It was pretty mangled.”
Lopez, a La Puente resident, was leaving a party held near the Union Pacific tracks, Rinden said. The crash occurred near Gilman Road, near the intersection of Valley Boulevard and Durfee Avenue. Lopez may have veered off a trackside dirt road at high speeds, leading to the rollover, Rinden said.
Then Rodriguez, of El Monte, saved Lopez’s life, Rinden said.
Lopez, Rodriguez and crewmen on the freight train were not injured in the accident. Rodriguez’s car was damaged but still drivable, and the freight train’s front-end pilot was dented. Deputies arrested Lopez on suspicion of driving under the influence and being an unlicensed driver, Rinden said.