Train Hits Semi That Slid Off Freeway

An out-of-control big-rig truck skidded down an embankment and was struck by a Metrolink train full of commuters Tuesday evening in Baldwin Park, stranding thousands of rush-hour train riders, including about a dozen police officers who were quickly pressed into disaster relief duties.

As it turned out, few heroics were needed. The truck driver suffered a broken left foot and was taken to Queen of the Valley hospital, but no passengers were injured.

Metrolink workers were scrambling late Tuesday to repair a twisted section of the track on the Los Angeles-San Bernardino line. Officials expected the line to be in service this morning, but with some delays.

“Obviously we’re up against an early morning deadline,” said Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo.

Authorities said the truck’s driver, Raymond E. Shoppell, 43, of Newark, Texas, may have fallen asleep at the wheel just before the 18-wheeler careened off the westbound San Bernardino Freeway, down a hill and onto the Metrolink tracks east of Baldwin Park Boulevard. The truck came to rest on the track just before 5:25 p.m. Officials said witnesses pulled the driver from the cab just as Metrolink train 860, bound for San Bernardino and loaded with 450 passengers, was speeding eastward.

Passengers inside had almost no warning.

“We heard a loud pop. That was the emergency brake going off,” said LAPD Officer Mike Partain, one of more than a dozen local law enforcement officers who were on the train heading home after the day shift. “All of a sudden we felt an impact, and the train started drifting to the left. I’m thinking, ‘God, this thing is going to tip over.’ ”

The collision tore a 15-foot-long gash along the right side of the locomotive; black tire tracks scarred all the train’s cars. The truck’s cab exploded into shrapnel, showering the train with metal shards, and the train lurched off the rails and skidded into the dirt. But it did not tip over.

Inside the train, which had left Union Station with the usual load that included deputies from the downtown Criminal Courts Building and LAPD officers from Parker Center, every commuter with a badge was summoned to action by the conductor.

“He put an announcement out for all law enforcement personnel to meet in the back car,” Partain said.

About 15 officers gathered in the rear car, where Partain and others had already grabbed fire extinguishers and quickly began evacuating passengers as the smell of diesel fuel from the truck filled the air.

“We didn’t want to take a chance on that thing sparking,” Partain said.

Once outside, the commuters could see the full extent of the damage. The impact “had completely twisted the rail,” Partain said. “It was like a giant hand twisted it in his hands.”

Metrolink officials sent another train to take some passengers on to their San Bernardino-area destinations and sent buses to pick up others--some of whom received free meals at a nearby hamburger restaurant while they waited. About 3,000 commuters stranded at Union Station were offered bus rides to stations to circumvent the tracks blocked by the wreckage, officials said.

A California Highway Patrol investigator said tests showed Shoppell was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He had stopped for a break in Ontario, the investigator said.

As for Partain, a 23-year LAPD veteran who works in the press office, he said he would continue to ride the train to and from work.

“I hate traffic,” he said. “Especially when it comes flying off the freeway.”

The repairs were to continue through the night. Metrolink officials had called for a 30-foot crane to be brought in to lift the train cars from the track. But the removal was delayed temporarily--the vehicle carrying the crane was stuck in traffic.