Marine Accused in Fatal Wreck of Freight Train

A 19-year-old Marine private was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Friday on charges of wrecking a 57-car Southern Pacific freight train that derailed near Palm Springs in late August, killing an apparent stowaway.

Brian Andrew Banks, stationed at the Marine Corps Air-Combat Training Center at Twentynine Palms, was also accused of stealing television sets as part of a gang of enlisted men who raided slow-moving trains in the desert during a four-month period last summer.

Eight other Marines pleaded guilty in Yucca Valley last month and were given one-year suspended sentences and fined $1,000 each for stealing from interstate shipments.

The indictment of Banks accuses the enlisted man of uncoupling the 21st car of a Chicago-bound freight Aug. 22.

Investigators concluded that the idea was to rob the remaining 36 cars when the front section sped away. But the train was on a slope, they said, and the rear cars rolled forward, reaching 96 m.p.h. and smashing into the front section six miles east of Palm Springs.

A Baldwin Park man, Fernando Miguel Garcia, 25, was killed in the resulting crash, which destroyed 33 cars and caused an estimated $3.5 million damage.