Mother and Son Barely Escape as Train Hits Jeep : Accident: The vehicle stalled at a crossing. The woman and youth are badly shaken after the fiery crash.

A mother and her 12-year-old son narrowly escaped death Wednesday morning when their vehicle stalled at a railroad crossing and was struck by a Metrolink train, authorities said.

Stella Reyes, 42, and her son, Gabriel, both of Pacoima, escaped injury but were badly shaken by the accident, which occurred as she was driving her son to school.

Their Jeep Cherokee was crushed and tossed more than 50 feet down the track and then burst into flames. Heat from the fire could be felt inside the train, Metrolink passengers said .

“It was like a mid-size car running over a soda can,” Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. “Everyone is very lucky.”

The train, headed from Lancaster to Downtown Los Angeles with about 200 passengers, was delayed about 45 minutes, Hidalgo said.

The accident happened about 7:50 a.m. as Reyes was driving with her son along San Fernando Road. The Jeep stalled on a stretch of tracks at the intersection of San Fernando Road and Osborne Street, police and witnesses said.

After repeatedly trying to restart the vehicle, Reyes looked up and saw the train barreling toward her, police said. She yelled at her son to get out, but continued trying to start it. Finally, she jumped out just before the 100-ton train hit her car, authorities said.

The engineer told police he had applied his air brakes after he realized the vehicle was apparently stuck on the tracks. The train was traveling 79 m.p.h. at the time.

“He said he saw the car stopped on the tracks about a quarter of a mile away and beeped his horn several times,” said Officer Norman Nagengast of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division. “He saw a woman get out right before impact.”

For many Metrolink commuters, there was little warning. Some screamed because they thought the train was on fire.

“I didn’t realize we hit anything, and all of a sudden this flame engulfed the side of the train,” said Sheryl Jones, a Santa Clarita resident who works as a legal assistant downtown.

Jones said passengers in her Metrolink car started screaming. “We were scared, we wanted out,” she said. “We thought something malfunctioned on the train.”

Although a few looked around when the engineer applied the air brakes, most were startled awake or looked up from their books to see the right side of the commuter train pass through what one passenger described as “12-foot flames.” Those sitting on that side felt intense heat, and some windows were singed.

Luz Paiz of Lancaster, who was taking the train for the first time to her job at an appliance store in Glendale, was dozing, then found herself looking at the flames.

“I felt a hit, I heard a hit. That startled me,” Paiz said. “What woke me up was the intense heat on the glass.”

Joan Jordan, who works at a downtown garment manufacturer, was sitting across from Paiz, on the left side of the train, when she saw something that looked like a spare tire for a Jeep, with the brackets, go flying by her window--the car part apparently sheered away by the impact.

Jordan was talking on a cellular phone to a work colleague at the time, and she looked to her right to see the flames. “I went, ‘Oh my gosh! I think we just hit a car!’ ”

Samuel Perez of Arleta--who takes the train from Sylmar to Union Station, where he catches another Metrolink to his job as a mechanical engineer in Upland--was sitting behind Paiz and jumped into the aisle to avoid the fire and heat.

“I thought the train was on fire because the flames kept on coming,” he said.