3 Rail Workers Killed in Crash Died of Burns

Three of the four Santa Fe railway workers killed in a crash here, including a woman brake operator working her first shift ever, burned to death after jumping from their locomotive just before it rammed an oncoming freight train, officials said Thursday.

“The indications to me are that they had gotten out and then the explosion occurred,” said Deputy Riverside County Coroner Alan Wesefeldt.

Officials believe that the Wednesday morning accident occurred because the 6,094-foot westbound train, for reasons that remain under investigation, failed to fully stop within an 8,370-foot-long side track and veered into the oncoming, Chicago-bound freight.

Representatives of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. on Thursday confirmed the identities of all four workers who were killed. On the westbound, they were brake operator Virginia C. Hartzell, 29, of Baldwin Park; engineer Gary R. Ledoux, 35, of Highland, and conductor James S. Wakefield, 55, of Fontana.

The one crew member killed on the Chicago-bound freight was brakeman Ronald A. Westervelt, 52, of San Bernardino. Westervelt, whose body was found aboard his locomotive, died from massive head injuries and burns, according to Wesefeldt, the deputy coroner.

Westervelt’s two surviving colleagues on the eastbound, engineer James Dawson, 50, and conductor Warren Sanders, 51, remained hospitalized at separate Riverside County hospitals with various broken bones and cuts. A nursing supervisor described Dawson’s condition as serious; Sanders was listed in fair condition.