Train Crash Injures 15 at Griffith Park : Accident: A crowded children’s ride collided with another, flipping one car. Most suffered only cuts and bruises, officials say.

One crowded children’s train crashed into another in Griffith Park on Sunday afternoon, flipping one car onto its side and sending seven children and eight adults to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.

“I just seen people flying out over on the other side. People started screaming and yelling, crying for their young ones,” said a shaken Carlos Zapata, 28, of Los Angeles, holding his 2 1/2-year-old son, Brandon.

Zapata, riding in the first passenger car on the train that rammed the other broadside, saw panicked parents and children toppling out of the overturned car. Two other cars were derailed but did not fall over, and the passengers scrambled out safely.

The youngest of the injured was 18 months old. The most seriously injured was a woman who suffered a broken arm. Five ambulances transported the injured to hospitals, said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Kevin Nida. More than a dozen other people were treated at the scene.

“Most of the patients had abrasions--cuts and bruises--neck and back pain. No one had any deep lacerations or anything graphic,” Nada said. “Considering the potential, we were all pretty lucky.”

Don Gustavson, an owner of G.P. Recreations, which has operated the trains since 1975, said engineers are supposed to wait until the first train pulls in at the end of the figure-8 train track before leaving the miniature station.

Instead, the driver of the second train evidently pulled out early, crashing into the other train before it could clear the intersection, Gustavson said.

“There’s a coordinated procedure. The other train is supposed to be behind him before he pulls out,” Gustavson said. “We’re going to find out exactly what happened and what went wrong.”

He will interview the two engineers, he said, and the trains will also be inspected for mechanical problems, although there is no indication that either train malfunctioned, Gustavson said.

The course is about a 1/4-mile long, winding at 7 m.p.h. past pony rides and garden statues of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the southeast corner of Griffith Park. The two trains have been toting tiny passengers on the loop course for 45 years, Gustavson said.

The engineer of the train that was struck had his leg trapped between two cars and suffered a minor ankle injury, Nida said. Zapata and other passengers and bystanders were able to pull him free.

Zapata was riding in the second train at about 3:30 p.m., checking out the scenery and pointing Snow White out to Brandon when he felt the lurch of impact as the engine rammed into the side of the other small train at the figure-8 intersection.

“I saw one little kid from that train lying on the ground with a cut. I just grabbed my kid and ran out and tried to help these people,” Zapata said. “I didn’t hear anything, no whistles, no brakes activating or anything. I didn’t even feel the train slowing down.”

About four years ago, one train rear-ended the other in a minor accident, but Sunday’s collision was the most serious since Gustavson’s company took over the ride, he said.

The two trains were carrying between 50 and 60 people, said Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Lee Busse.

The accident left passengers and bystanders shaken and distraught.

“I like to take my kid to train rides,” said Zapata, who brought his son here for the first time. “We went to the Blue Line, but there are so many accidents with (automobiles). Then we came here to the kiddie rides and this happened. It’s horrible.”

Zapata said he wants some answers about Sunday’s accident, but others were more philosophical.

“It’s just an accident, just one of those things,” said Enrique Rivera, 45, of Los Angeles, holding the hands of his two disappointed sons as they peered past yellow police tape at the disabled trains.

The boys, 4-year-old Lalo and 6-year-old Sergio, have ridden the trains dozens of times, “two or three times each time we come over here,” Rivera said.

Gustavson said one train may be running again today.

The accident is the second recent incident involving the children’s ride in less than a year.

In October, 49-year-old Stanley Diamond, a mini-train engineer known as “Uncle Stan” to hundreds of children and their parents, was shot and killed during a robbery in the park as he picked up cash receipts from the train and two other concessions at the end of the day.