Train Hits Unoccupied Car on Tracks
An Amtrak train hit an unoccupied car on the tracks near the intersection of Rose Avenue and 5th Street on Monday, dragging the vehicle about 50 yards.
No one was injured in the slow-speed collision, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m. A tire on a yellow Buick Skyhawk driven by 28-year-old Christian Contreras of Camarillo went flat while he was making a right turn onto 5th Street from southbound Rose Avenue.
“We couldn’t control the car,” said Norma Rodriguez, 32, who was riding with the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Meylen, prior to the collision. “We tried to turn and turn, and the more we did the more it went into the track.”
Rodriguez said she knew it was too late when the arms on the railroad crossing came down. She grabbed the child and the three of them ran away to a safe distance.
The westbound train was en route from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, said Amtrak conductor Jim Backer, and applied its brakes more than a quarter of a mile before the impact, when the crew determined that the car was not moving off the tracks.
The accident slowed traffic on Rose Avenue in both directions for more than an hour as the railroad crossing arms intermittently rose and fell until the wreckage was cleared. A westbound MetroLink train was also delayed for nearly 30 minutes.
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