3 Killed, 1 Hurt When Amtrak Train Plows Into Van : Accident: Vehicle sitting on tracks is hit at an unguarded crossing near Moorpark.

Three men were killed and another seriously injured Friday afternoon when an Amtrak train slammed into their van at an unguarded crossing near the Ventura County community of Moorpark, dragging the vehicle more than a quarter of a mile, authorities said.

The bright yellow van had stopped on the tracks at a private crossing just east of Balcom Canyon Road and California 118 for an unknown reason, authorities said. The engineer on the southbound train was unable to avoid the crash despite using the emergency brakes.

Two of the van passengers were ejected in the 4:30 p.m. accident and two others were trapped inside the twisted wreckage, which was pushed along the tracks by the seven-car train, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Matt DeMarco.

The men inside the van and one of those ejected were pronounced dead at the scene, DeMarco said. Antonio Chavez of Oxnard, 28, was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition and undergoing surgery, a spokeswoman said. The names of the men who were killed were not released.

Ventura County firefighters were working hours after the crash to cut the trapped victims out of the van. Investigators said the men were agricultural workers who had just driven from a field onto a road that crosses the tracks.

The fatal wreck comes at a time when safety experts fear an increase in such deaths because of more high-speed trains rolling through the county.

Metrolink, which debuted in October and links Moorpark with downtown Los Angeles, is now running eight trains a day through eastern Ventura County. These trains, like those run by Amtrak, run more frequently and faster than the familiar, slow-moving freight trains.

Police broadcasts indicated that the train may have been traveling as fast as 65 m.p.h. when it struck the van.

C. Larry, an Amtrak conductor on the train that left Santa Barbara at 3:15 p.m. headed for San Diego, said passengers felt the jolt of the emergency brakes being applied moments before the crash.

“We felt it before we hit anybody,” Larry said. “I told all the passengers, anybody that was standing up, to hold on.”

One train passenger, Jeff Cherry, 14, of Santa Clarita, said the sudden braking threw him into the seat in front of him. “I went flying,” he said.

After the crash, passengers sat in the train waiting for buses to take them to Los Angeles, as investigators probed the wreckage.

CHP Officer George Orosco said that one of the men killed in the accident had just moved into a new house and had told co-workers that his children had been pestering him to open their Christmas presents early.

Friday’s accident was the second fatal collision between a passenger train and a private vehicle in Southern California in two days.

Thursday night in Long Beach, a Blue Line commuter train pulling into a station at First Street and Pine Avenue struck a car, killing an elderly Rancho Palos Verdes couple.

On Nov. 25, a Metrolink train hit a dump truck at a private crossing in Pacoima, killing a city worker.

Times correspondent Kay Saillant and Times staff writer Carlos V. Lozano contributed to this story.