2 Crushed to Death in Railroad Car : Accident: Another is badly hurt when a load of steel rods shifts. Officials say illegal aliens probably were returning to Mexico.

A man and a woman, illegal immigrants apparently trying to return to Mexico on a freight train, died early Tuesday in the City of Industry when they were crushed in a moving railroad car that carried more than 100 tons of steel rods, authorities said.

Armando Garcia, 19, of Mexico, who also was inside the car, was impaled by the rods and taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina where he was reported in critical condition. A fourth man, Benjamin Contreras, 36, of Northridge, who was riding on top of the car, escaped injury.

The accident occurred at 1 a.m. in Southern Pacific’s train yard in the 17400 block of Arenth Avenue, railroad spokeswoman Carolynne Born said.

The four illegal passengers hopped aboard a roofless, gondola-type car in Barstow. Three of them sought shelter from the cold night air amid the 50-foot-long, 5/8-inch-diameter steel rods used to reinforce concrete, Born said.

Railroad crews diverted the car and its 129-ton load to a side track at the City of Industry, but when it slammed against another car, the rods shifted, Born said.

Contreras ran for help while Garcia, stuck inside the car with a broken leg, pulled the rods from his shoulder, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Jack Pritchard said. Fire crews took five hours to remove the crushed bodies of the still-unidentified man and woman from the car.

Southern Pacific railroad officials said the accident emphasizes the dangers faced by illegal immigrants who are hopping freights in increasing numbers in Southern California.

“This is the time of year when migrants start moving back toward Mexico,” said one railroad company spokesman. “They choose this mode of transportation because we’re traveling to areas they want, we’re cheap and we’re constantly moving.”

Operators of the three railroad freight lines that cross Southern California--Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Santa Fe--have beefed up security measures in recent years to prevent immigrants and others from riding the rails, officials said.

The measures include canine patrols, increased lighting and fencing around train yards, cooperation with police and the U.S. Border Patrol and aerial, video and high-rise surveillance, said Mike Martin, a Santa Fe Railway spokesman.

Riding the trains is only a misdemeanor offense, but illegal immigrants face deportation if they are turned over to border agents.

“The biggest problem all railroads have had in Southern California in the last decade is the increasing volume of illegal immigrants,” Martin said.

“The romance of hobos and riding the rails in the Depression era is only true in the movies or in song,” he said. “Loads in freight cars can shift and impale people. . . . This is heavy equipment not designed for passengers to ride.”