4 Youngsters Die as Freight Train Hits Stalled Car

Four young boys were killed and their mother injured early Saturday when their car was struck by a fast-moving freight train in Delano, 30 miles north of Bakersfield, police said.

The accident, on the main thoroughfare through the town, occurred after the car apparently stalled on the tracks in busy morning traffic, police said. The driver, Leonila Lendes, 32, of Delano, stepped out and waved vainly for the train to stop before it smashed into the car at about 7:30 a.m., pushing it eight blocks and killing the children inside.

“I don’t know what happened--the car just stopped (on the tracks),” Lendes said in a brief interview. “I tried my best to start it, but nothing. It doesn’t start.”

Lendes, a farm worker, said she was traveling home from early morning work in the grape fields. She had just stopped at a baby-sitter to pick up her four children--Jimmy, 8; Ronillo, 7; Francis, 5; and Rogelio Jr., 10 months.

The car, a stick-shift model 1990 Nissan Sentra, was one she regularly borrowed from her brother. Lendes said she does not believe she had difficulty with the clutch pedal.

“I was driving a stick-shift four years,” she said. “That was a brand-new car. I borrow the car every day (to travel to) the baby-sitter.”

Crossing arms at the intersection were functioning properly, police said, but apparently the car reached the tracks before the arms descended. The train engineer reported seeing the car “jump” on the tracks, after which Lendes stepped from the driver’s door, said Delano Police Sgt. Don Callahan.

But the Southern Pacific freight, traveling nearly 70 m.p.h. with nearly 100 cars, could not stop in time, he said.

“This woman got out and was waving her arms at the train to try to stop it,” Callahan said. “She got out of the way right at the last moment.”

After striking the vehicle at 11th Street, the train pushed it all the way to 19th Street before stopping, Callahan said. Lendes was treated at Delano Regional Medical Center, mostly for emotional distress, he said.

Lendes had left the Philippines with her father to come to the United States five years ago, said longtime family friend Nalde Idolyantes. Her husband, Rogelio, brought the children and joined her three years later, hoping to ensure a better future for them in a country with better schools.

The family became a part of Delano’s relatively large Filipino community. The town, with a population of 21,000, is largely made up of migrant farm workers who harvest grape and kiwi crops and produce almonds and pistachios. Leonila had returned to the fields two months ago after giving birth to the youngest son, Idolyantes said. Rogelio also works in the grape fields, she said.

Although trains travel through the center of town about once an hour, the accident was the worst in memory, Callahan said.