Crash Blamed on Confluence of Highly Improbable Factors

Though experts differ on the safety of railroad cab cars, they all agree that the Jan. 26 Metrolink crash in Glendale involved an almost incomprehensible set of misfortunes.

“In my 30 years in the industry, I have never seen an accident with these kinds of events,” said David Solow, chief executive of Metrolink.

Here, pieced together from what investigators have learned so far, is an account of what happened that morning:

As Metrolink No. 100 barreled south at 79 mph just after 6 a.m., engineer Bruce Gray spotted a reflector on the right turn signal of a 1992 Jeep Cherokee straddling the tracks, 150 feet south of the grade crossing at Chevy Chase Drive.

The vehicle was left astride one of the rails with its front wheels resting on the ties and its rear wheels dug into the gravel, leaving the sport utility vehicle more firmly embedded than if it were parked at a grade crossing.

“The cross ties were almost like Velcro strips holding the tires,” said Michael E. McGinley, director of engineering and construction for Metrolink.

A quarter mile from the SUV, Gray slammed on the train’s brakes, slowing it to 62 mph before hitting the Jeep, according to Metrolink’s investigation. The initial impact did not derail any cars.

The train pulverized the SUV and pushed it about 300 feet until it met the first of three switches, which are diagonal rails crossing the parallel rails of the track.

McGinley suspects that some of the wreckage was stuck under the cab car and may have become entangled in the switch, causing the cab car to begin derailing.

The Jeep’s engine block, made of cast iron with six cylinders in a straight line, took a 3-foot divot out of one of the steel rails.

Safety experts say cast-iron engine blocks, as opposed to aluminum blocks used in many newer cars, are among the most dangerous objects involving motor vehicle crashes.

When the train hit the third switch, the cab car veered onto a siding, where two Union Pacific locomotives were parked.

The collision demolished a third of the cab car and knocked one of the 150-ton locomotives on its side. Eight passengers died in the southbound cab car.

As the southbound train hit the locomotive, the cab car and coach car behind it jackknifed.

At that very instant, northbound Metrolink No. 901 was passing on tracks immediately to the east at 43 mph.

The locomotive pulling that train and the first passenger car just missed the protruding wreckage.

But the second and third passenger cars were clipped, tearing it “like a can opener,” said Glendale police Lt. John Perkins, who is heading the criminal investigation against the driver of the Jeep, Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, of Compton.

Two passengers died in the second car and a train employee died in the third car, Perkins added.

By the time the northbound train came to rest, a signal bridge had collapsed on top of it.

Three of the northbound cars derailed and one lay on its side 30 to 40 feet away from the track.

The Jeep engine block ended up under the locomotive of the northbound train.

“There are a thousand things that came together here,” McGinley said.