3 Injured in Yorba Linda Train Crash

Three members of a train crew were injured today as they leaped into the night from their eastbound freight traveling an estimated 40 m.p.h. moments before it sideswiped a westbound train loaded with cars and trucks, authorities said.

Seventeen train cars and two 200-ton locomotives derailed in the 4:08 a.m. collision between two Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co. trains heading in opposite directions in Yorba Linda, a company spokesman said.

At least half a dozen Santa Fe freight trains and two Amtrak passenger trains will be rerouted today as authorities work to clear the tracks, said Michael A. Martin, a Santa Fe spokesman.

Martin said the mainline track running through Santa Ana Canyon, paralleling the Riverside Freeway, should be cleared for normal train traffic by this evening.

Naphtha Car Missed

The eastbound train severed the westbound train nine cars back from its lead locomotive, just missing a tanker car filled with highly flammable naphtha, said Orange County Fire Capt. Hank Raymond.

“That’s where we got lucky,” Raymond said. More than three dozen firefighters and two hazardous materials teams responded to the crash, he said.

According to paramedics who talked to injured crew members, a semaphore signal was blinking a red stop warning to the eastbound train less than 100 feet from where the trains collided, Raymond said.

A Santa Fe spokesman said inspectors where checking whether all signals along the tracks were functioning properly. Apparently the westbound train was switching over to a side track to make room for the approaching eastbound train on the mainline, Martin said.

The three injured men riding in the lead locomotive on the eastbound train--the conductor, engineer and brakeman--were treated at local hospitals and released, authorities said.

The engineer on the westbound train was taken to a local hospital complaining of chest pains; he was also treated and released, authorities said.

The eight crew members working on the two trains will be tested for drugs and alcohol, standard company policy after major accidents and a requirement of the National Railroad Administration, said company spokesman Martin.

Inspectors with the rail administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene investigating the cause of the collision.

Black box recorders similar to those required in passenger airplane cockpits will be reviewed over the next several days to determine the train’s speed and other factors that may have caused the accident, Martin said.

One train was bound for Los Angeles from Chicago carrying truck trailers with mail parcels on 42 flatbed cars, Martin said. The other was headed from Los Angeles to Kansas City with 72 cars carrying mostly Ford pickup trucks and automobiles.

Because of the curving track through much of the Santa Ana Canyon, the train speed limit is 45 m.p.h., Martin said.