Passenger Train Hits Trailer; 2 Horses Killed

An Amtrak passenger train carrying 300 passengers smashed into a loaded horse van Friday, shearing off the van’s rear section and killing two horses--one a 4-year-old racing horse from Hollywood Park.

No one was injured in the 4 p.m. accident, but Amtrak’s southbound and northbound service was delayed nearly two hours while sheriff’s deputies investigated the crash one mile north of the San Juan Capistrano depot.

The passengers, jolted by the impact, were transferred to another San Diego-bound train to continue their commute.

Passenger Daniel Taylor, 20, of Buena Park said, “The conductor ran back and said, ‘Brace yourself!’ He said, ‘We’re going to hit something!’ Then there was a big jolt.”

Van driver Patrick Duff said he thought that the 36-foot van loaded with six horses had cleared the tracks that cross Oso Road.

“I thought I was clear. I wouldn’t let my rear end hang over the track. The train could have swept us all in. I’m glad the people in the train weren’t hurt, or us,” Duff said.

Duff’s passenger, Dan Bruce, said that the cab of the van was crossing the track when the Amtrak warning bells sounded and the arms came down. He said that he, like Duff, believed the van was safely out of the path of the train. But he said that the van couldn’t have moved forward more than a few additional feet because of traffic ahead of them on Camino Capistrano.

The train hit about four seconds after the van reached the stop sign at the intersection, he said.

“I looked behind us, and I saw parts of the van and the horses flying,” Bruce said. The two horses died instantly, he said.

An Amtrak spokesman said that even if the van had cleared the tracks, as the men thought, it was still too near the railroad right-of-way.

Clifford Black, an Amtrak spokesman in Washington, said the accident occurred because a vehicle “was parked within the clearance of the railroad track.”

Amtrak service between Los Angeles and San Diego was delayed about 90 minutes, he said.

Beth Barney, who lives near the train crossing, said that drivers constantly risk train collisions at the intersection.

“I see them day after day, time after time,” she said. “Instead of staying back of the (limit) line, they keep pulling up to the intersection until cars are backed up over the tracks.”

Pam Sauer, who lives near Barney and saw the accident, said: “I heard a man yelling to back up, and I walked outside. The train hit with a large thump. First I saw the little horse go flying, and then I saw the big horse go. It was pretty spooky.”

The rear six to eight feet of the horse van was demolished, and metal debris and hay from the wreckage were strewn hundreds of feet along the track and street. The surviving four horses in the van were terrified, whinnying loudly from the front of the trailer, which was knocked sideways but remained upright.

Duff and Bruce are employees of Nationwide Horse Transportation, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Mike Halla, Nationwide’s office manager there, said that he and the men feel bad that the two horses were lost.

One of the horses killed was a 4-year-old, thoroughbred brood mare from Hollywood Park that was being shipped to a breeding farm in Arizona, Halla said. “She had suffered a fractured knee and was no longer racing. The trainer was going to ship her to a breeding farm,” he said.

The other horse was a privately owned filly. Halla said he did not know the horses’ owners.

The van, which was en route to Arizona, had just picked up two horses at San Juan Capistrano stables.

An owner of one of the surviving horses showed up soon after the accident. Told that his horse was unharmed, he said, “Thank God,” and squeezed into the battered trailer to comfort the animal.

Times staff writer Ajowa Ifateyo contributed to this report.