Orange : Train Slams Into Truck; Man in Stable Condition

A Garden Grove man was listed in stable condition Wednesday after the pickup truck he was driving was hit broadside by a passenger train, authorities said.

Railroad crossing gates had been lowered and a half-dozen cars had already stopped at the intersection at 400 W. Walnut St., when Guadalupe Palma, 27, drove past the cars, around the arms of the gate and onto the tracks, said Timm Browne, a spokesman for the Orange Police Department.

The seven-car Amtrak train, northbound from San Diego to Los Angeles, struck Palma’s 1988 Ford pickup truck at 6:48 p.m, Browne said.

Palma was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana where he was listed in stable condition. The truck was destroyed, Browne said.

“He was obviously very fortunate.”

Palma may have escaped death because the train was traveling at the relatively slow speed of 35 m.p.h. and hit the truck behind the cab on the side away from the driver, he said.