Motorist Hurt in Collision at Railroad Crossing

One person was injured in Chatsworth on Thursday night when a two-car collision sent one vehicle into the path of an oncoming Amtrak train.

The injured person, whose name was not immediately released, was the driver of a Honda Accord that had stopped in front of a flashing rail crossing gate on De Soto Avenue near Knapp Street at 8:45 p.m., authorities said. The driver received minor injuries when an auto driven by Ching-Fang Lin, 39, rear-ended the vehicle and then careened into the path of the oncoming train, police said.

“I couldn’t open the door, and then I saw the train coming,” said Lin, of Chatsworth. “Two seconds before the train came, I just jumped out.”

Lin’s car was smashed and pushed about 25 yards by the locomotive pulling Amtrak’s San Diegan to Santa Barbara.

Mike Fleshman, the train’s engineer, said he saw the car when the northbound train was about half a mile away and traveling 60 m.p.h. He put on the brakes and the train hit the vehicle when it had slowed to 20 m.p.h., he said.

None of about 150 passengers aboard the seven-car train were injured, authorities said.