Crash Probe Focuses on Truck Driver

A preliminary investigation of Friday’s crash of a Metrolink train into a truck carrying an oversize load is focusing on the truck driver’s actions as the cause of the accident.

A final investigation is weeks from completion, but officials said the ultimate responsibility for the truck is with the driver--not the pilot vehicle leading the truck or the California Highway Patrol officers contracted to escort them.

The accident occurred shortly after 6 a.m. Friday, when the truck, operated by Mercury Transportation Inc. of Houston, was southbound on Grandview Avenue. It was delivering a $1.5-million carbon dioxide condensing unit from Texas to an oil refinery in El Segundo and had been on the road for 20 days.

Because the truck was carrying an oversize load--one nearly 19 feet high--the driver often had to avoid freeways with over-crossings that weren’t high enough, said Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli. The company had to seek permission from Caltrans for state highways and from individual cities the truck was traveling through, she said.

West Coast Services of Monrovia, which was hired by Mercury Transportation, was handling permits for the truck’s route from Arizona to its El Segundo destination, she said.

But Wes Mollno, West Coast Services president, said his firm organized the route but was not able to pull a Glendale permit. Glendale police said they are investigating the lack of a permit.

Mercury Transportation did not return calls Monday.

On Friday, the caravan was on Grandview Avenue in Glendale and instead of turning left onto San Fernando Road, the pilot vehicle continued straight across Grandview over a railroad crossing. The truck followed it, carrying its 110,000-pound cargo.

CHP officers alerted the caravan to the mistake, telling the truck’s driver to turn around. But when the truck came back over the railroad tracks, it scraped the bottom of the roadway and the driver got out to attempt to raise the trailer. At that point the railroad warning gates came down, and about 30 to 45 seconds later the Metrolink train crashed into the truck, ripping the trailer from the cab and dragging it a quarter-mile down the track.

Seven people, including the engineer and conductor, received minor injuries. The truck driver was unhurt.

Glendale police said the slope at the Grandview railroad crossing is steeper on the south side of the crossing than on the north. So the truck traveled across the tracks the first time without incident, but when it doubled back, it bottomed out on the steeper section.

Although the CHP was hired to escort the truck because of its wide load, its responsibility is “to ensure that other motorists are not hurt or damaged by the truck,” said state CHP Commissioner Spike Helmick.

“It is the pilot [vehicle] and the truck driver’s responsibility to get there safely. We are there to make sure that the size or weight of the load does not create unsafe conditions for other motorists,” he said.

Helmick said he did not think his officers erred when they told truck driver Arron Bellmyer to go back over the tracks, because they had no other route available.

“The officer believed it could come back over the tracks,” Helmick said. “Clearly if we waited till noon when there were no trains that would have been better . . . Clearly the truck driver has to assume some of the liability, they know the drivability and steerability of the truck.”

Lt. Don Meredith, traffic bureau commander at the Glendale Police Department, agreed, saying the truck driver “alone knows the capability of that vehicle with that load.”

Meredith also said Bellmyer did not disclose to the CHP the lack of proper permits and other information.

Staff writer Roberto Manzano contributed to this story.