(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Amy Taxin on November 21.)
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Southern California commuter train that sideswiped a freight train this week had run a red signal, an investigator said Friday, and officials are looking at brake problems or human error as possible causes.
No serious injuries were reported, but the accident stirred still-vivid memories of a deadly train collision in the region in September between a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train.
New safety procedures were put in place after that crash killed 25 people and was attributed to the failure of a Metrolink engineer to stop at a red light so an oncoming Union Pacific train could go by.
The eastbound Metrolink train in Thursday’s accident was carrying 15 passengers and crew members and failed to stop at a red light about 150 feet from where it hit the rear cars of a westbound BNSF freight train, said Ted Turpin, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Turpin said that the four-car Metrolink train had nearly stopped and that the red signal appeared to have been working. Two engineers on the Metrolink train took note of yellow signals earlier on the route, he said, but the train didn’t stop before the BNSF freight had eased onto a side track.
After passing the yellow signal, an engineer “attempted to stop the train and didn’t stop before reaching the signal,” Turpin told The Associated Press.
Investigators are looking at the brakes and the train’s operators as they try to determine a cause, he said.
Francisco Oaxaca, a spokesman for Metrolink, declined to comment.
Four people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after the crash in Rialto, about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
A Metrolink train collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight Sept. 12 in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles. Both trains were going about 40 mph.