Tracking a history of collisions

Gretchen Hoffman

Monday’s deadly MetroLink accident wasn’t the first to hit the

tracks that stretch through Glendale and Burbank.

There have been more than 35 collisions between trains and cars or

trucks in the two cities since 1976, according to the Federal

Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis.

At least nine of them took place at or near the crossing where

truck driver Jacek W. Wysocki was killed in the Monday accident at

Buena Vista Street and San Fernando Boulevard.

More than 10 other train-and-truck collisions happened at the

Doran Street crossing in Glendale.

Past accidents include:

* August 2001: A train struck the back of tractor-trailer exiting

the crossing at Buena Vista Street in Burbank. No injuries were

reported.

* November 2000: A woman whose car was too far over the

restraining line at the Buena Vista intersection in Burbank got her

front bumper knocked off by a passing train.

* January 2000: A tractor-trailer truck being escorted by

California Highway Patrol officers was broadsided by a commuter train

near Grandview Avenue in Glendale. The train engineer and four

passengers suffered minor injuries.

* October 1998: A train hit a car at Doran Street in Glendale. No

one was injured.

* February 1997: A train struck an abandoned car at Buena Vista

Street in Burbank. No injuries were reported.

* January 1997: A train hit a tractor-trailer at Bekins Way in

Glendale. No one was injured.

* August 1996: A train collided with a tractor-trailer filled

with carpet and Styrofoam, shredding the truck and its contents near

Bekins Way in Glendale. No one was injured.

* September 1995: A train hit a bus at Doran Street in Glendale.

No injuries were reported.

* April 1995: A train hit a truck at Doran Street in Glendale. No

injuries were reported.