5 Injured as Train Strikes Truck

A Metrolink commuter train slammed into a tractor-trailer Monday night in Glendale, injuring at least five people, officials said.

Four passengers on the train suffered minor injuries, said Denise Tyrrell, a Metrolink spokeswoman. The truck driver sustained minor injuries, Tyrrell said.

The train was heading from Lancaster to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles shortly before 8 p.m. when it rammed into the truck’s trailer, Tyrrell said. The truck driver apparently decided to change direction and backed up onto the tracks in order to do so, Tyrrell said.

“He obviously did not hear or understand that a train was coming,” she said. “Our engineer saw there was something white ahead on the tracks and was able to warn passengers to brace themselves before he turned on the emergency brake.”

The crossing gate was coming down as the driver was backing up, Tyrrell said, and the train struck the back end of the truck.

“It looks like it was just a straight-up accident,” she said. “The driver was lucky. Not many people can say they were hit by a train and survived.”

In January, a Metrolink train traveling through Glendale crashed into a Jeep, derailed and slammed into an oncoming commuter train and a freight train, killing 11 people and injuring nearly 200. The Jeep’s owner, Juan Manuel Alvarez of Compton, had allegedly parked his vehicle on the tracks, then abandoned it as a train approached. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the trial against Alvarez in the incident.