Truck Stuck at Leucadia Crossing Hit by Amtrak Train

A semitrailer rig carrying eight cars was hit and destroyed Wednesday afternoon, its cars knocked to the ground by a fast-moving Amtrak train in Leucadia after the truck “bottomed out” and got stuck in the middle of a railroad crossing.

Authorities said seven passengers on the train suffered minor injuries, but a spokeswoman for Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas said six people were treated for bumps, bruises and neck strains and then released.

A witness to the crash said the truck, which was delivering a car to a couple who had just moved to Leucadia from Michigan, was stuck on the Leucadia Boulevard crossing at Highway 101 for about 15 minutes.

Dwayne Davidson, 28, a clerk at a 7-Eleven store on Leucadia Boulevard, said he left the store and tried to help the driver move the big rig. But despite the driver’s efforts to move the vehicle back and forth, the trailer’s middle section wouldn’t budge.

Davidson said he went back to the store and asked another clerk to call the 911 emergency number. The clerk was told by the emergency dispatcher that “they don’t handle minor traffic accidents,” according to Davidson.

The clerk was given another telephone number to call, but it’s unclear whether that number was called. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said he wasn’t aware of the emergency call and that it would take at least a day to review the 911 tapes and clear up the confusion.

Davidson said he ran back outside and used a cellular phone in his car to call authorities. A few minutes later, about 2:45 p.m., he saw the lights and heard the bells of the crossing guard mechanism. Then the San Diego-bound train came into view, its whistle blaring and brakes locked.

As is common on the Los Angeles to San Diego run, the engine was in the rear pushing the passenger cars up front, said Mike Martin, spokesman for Santa Fe railroad.

The engineer, operating the train from a cab in the front passenger car, told Santa Fe officials that the train was traveling about 55 m.p.h. when he saw the stalled truck about 1,500 feet ahead and put on the brakes. It is customary for Amtrak trains to travel up to 90 m.p.h. through this section of track, Martin said.

The train plowed into the semitrailer, sending up a large cloud of dust, cutting the rig in half, launching several of the cars off the trailer and demolishing the signal equipment and rubberized crossing itself.

Guy Nelson, a passenger who got on at San Juan Capistrano, said the train was about three-quarters full. He described the impact as “just a bump.” He and the rest of the able passengers were put on buses to San Diego.

The accident tied up traffic on Old Highway 101, closing the northbound section of the busy coastal roadway for about 200 yards and also hampering traffic on the south side. Authorities said two people were slightly injured in a car accident amid the congestion.

The front wheels of the passenger car derailed. A crane was brought in, and about 5:25 p.m. the wheels were put back on the track.

Martin said the track sustained only minimal damage and that Amtrak trains would be running normally Wednesday night.