Man in Serious Condition After Train Slams Into Car at Moorpark Crossing

An 18-year-old Burbank man was in serious condition with a head injury Monday after his car was hit by an Amtrak train at a railroad crossing in Moorpark.

Rescuers had to pry the driver’s door off the gray Saturn sedan to remove John Spears from the vehicle, which came to rest in a crumpled pile just west of the Spring Street crossing about 10:15 a.m., authorities said.

Spears was taken to Simi Valley Hospital with a head injury and a large cut on his chin, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Ed Tumbleson. None of the train’s more than 100 passengers or crew was injured in the collision.

“Please get the word out. If you’re in heavy traffic just wait,” Tumbleson said. “Do not try to beat a train. You’ll lose.”

Tumbleson said that Spears, a student at Moorpark College, was driving to campus at the time of the accident, whose cause was still under investigation.

The force of the impact of the Pacific Surfliner, traveling at up to 70 mph on its daily route from San Diego north to Goleta, spun the automobile so hard that it sheared off the metal pole supporting the railroad crossing gate at its base.

It also forced the wheels of the train to slip off the tracks, damaging the rail bed and train station platform.

Chris Hwang, 20, a student at Moorpark College, said he had just gotten off a Metrolink train from Chatsworth when the incident occurred. Though he didn’t see the collision, Hwang said he saw the train coming after it jumped the track.

“You could smell the burning of rubber,” he said, adding that “there was a large amount of dust and debris” kicked up.

As the train continued in his direction, Hwang said, he ran into the parking lot just before a nearly 8-foot steel brace known as a plow, which pushes debris from the track, flew off one of the cars and broke a metal handrail that passengers use as they board trains. One leg of the railing was ripped from its concrete base.

The train finally came to a stop a few yards after it passed the Moorpark Avenue intersection.

Tumbleson said the train’s engineer was the only crew member who saw the collision. He said other crew members said they hardly felt the collision but were aware that the train had left the tracks.

Passenger Richard Villagas of Carpinteria, who was traveling from Van Nuys, said he could hear rocks smashing against the bottom of the train after it left the tracks. “I knew we hit something, something big,” he said while waiting to be placed on another Amtrak train headed north.

Amtrak passengers on a southbound Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles were transferred to a Metrolink commuter train in Moorpark for the rest of the journey. At the same time, Villagas and 103 other passengers were escorted onto the empty Surfliner for the trip to Goleta, said Amtrak spokeswoman Sarah Swain. The delay took more than two hours, she said.