Blue Line Kills Elder & Critically Injures Teenager on Same Day in Separate Accidents

L.B. Woman, 75, Dies After Her Car Struck by Blue Line Train

Long Beach Press-Telegram
Kelly Puente
April 7, 2008

LONG BEACH - A 75-year-old Long Beach woman was killed in a car accident on Monday after she allegedly made an illegal left-hand turn in her vehicle and collided with a Metro Blue Line train. The woman was driving southbound on Long Beach Boulevard at about 1:15 p.m. when she attempted to make an illegal left-hand turn onto Third Street, which is a one-way street, said Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt.

A train heading south on the boulevard plowed into the driver's side of her green Toyota sedan. Pratt said the woman suffered major internal injuries from the impact. Capt. Mike DuRee of the Long Beach Fire Department said the victim was unconscious and having trouble breathing when paramedics arrived. She was transported to St. Mary Medical Center, where she died a short time later. Her name was released Monday pending notification of family.

Witnesses said it looked as if the woman had not been paying attention. "I was standing on the corner (of Long Beach Boulevard and Third) talking on my phone when I heard the bang," said witness Andreas Hernandez. "You could feel the force of the impact through the air."

Authorities had closed off Long Beach Boulevard from Broadway to Fourth Street as they investigated the accident scene and passengers on the train were being let off. Signal Hill resident Belinda Maxin was on the train when she felt the the conductor slam on the brakes suddenly. Maxin, like many passengers, had to walk the rest of the way to the bus and train stations on First Street.

The incident was the second involving a Metro train on Monday. A young man apparently struck by a Metro Blue Line train south of downtown Los Angeles was taken to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said. Paramedics sent to Grand Avenue and Washington Boulevard about 8:30 a.m. found the man lying next to the train, which had stopped, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The man was treated for head, arm and pelvis injuries, Humphrey said.

kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1305. City News Service contributed to this report.

Also:

• LAist reports the young man critically injured a 19-year old Trade Tech student
  

Blue Line Kills 17 and 27 Year Old and Leaves 7 Year Old in Critical Condition

2 Killed, 2 Injured in Car Hit by Train

Los Angeles Times
By Nancy Cleeland
August 21, 2006

A man and his sister were killed and his 7-year-old son was critically injured Sunday morning when the man turned their car in front of a Blue Line train near downtown Los Angeles and the vehicle was dragged half a block along the tracks, police said.

The siblings’ grandmother, 68, who was in the back seat, was being treated at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center for chest pains, said Det. Josephine Mapson of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The driver was identified as Cesar Herrera, 27, of Los Angeles. His sister, Maria A. Herrera, was 17. Police did not identify the survivors.

Six of the 92 passengers on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority train were treated for minor injuries and released, Mapson said.

Both the car and the train, which runs at street level along the center of Washington Boulevard, were traveling east. The train’s operator told police that he saw a maroon Mazda stopped in the left-turn lane ahead of him at the intersection of Maple Avenue. Just as the train was about to pass, the traffic light turned green for through traffic but the left-turn arrow remained red.

Nevertheless, the Mazda driver turned left in front of the train, and the car was struck and pushed 162 feet east.

Mapson said the driver may have misread the traffic signal, which also has a box with flashing lights indicating an approaching train.

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel cut away the roof of the smashed car to remove the boy and his great-grandmother.

“I’ve been here 4 1/2 years and I’ve lost count of the number of accidents I’ve seen with this train,” said fire Battalion Chief Ray Gomez.


2 die when car collides with Blue Line train

Daily Breeze
August 21, 2006

Two people were killed and two other people, including a 7-year- old boy, were critically injured Sunday when the vehicle they were in collided with a Blue Line train in downtown Los Angeles, a fire official said.

The crash was reported at Maple Avenue and Washington Boulevard shortly after 9 a.m., said Brian Ballton of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

A 25-year-old man, who was driving, and his 17-year-old sister, were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

A 55-year-old woman and the 7-year-old boy were taken to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in critical condition, he said.

Witnesses told KABC Channel 7 it appeared the man tried to make a left turn in front of the train.

About 50 people were on the train, and six were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, Ballton said.

According to KCBS Channel 2, it's the third crash involving an MTA Blue Line train in eight days.

On Aug. 13, a Blue Line train collided with a car at Flower Street and Pico Boulevard downtown, injuring the driver of a Honda, his passenger and several rail passengers.

Two days ago, a woman suffered minor injuries when she tried to make a turn in front of a Blue Line train near Flower Street and Venice Boulevard and was struck.


Two Dead, Eight Injured After Car Crashes Into MTA Train

KABC-TV
August 20, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Two people were killed and two others, including a 7- year-old boy, were critically injured Sunday when the vehicle they were in crashed into an MTA Blue Line train, a fire official said.

Of the 50 people on the train which was hit near downtown Los Angeles, six were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries, said Los Angeles City fire spokesperson Brian Ballton.

Fire personnel were dispatched to the scene of the crash in the area of Maple Avenue and Washington Boulevard at 9:03 a.m., Ballton said.

The 40-year-old male driver and the front seat passenger, a 40-year-old woman, were pronounced dead at the scene. The other occupants, a 55- year-old woman and a 7-year-old boy, were transported to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in critical condition.

A description of the vehicle involved in the crash was not immediately available, Ballton said.


Also:

• Post on the LAFD Blog mentions the 7-year old boy's name is Anthony
• Pictures from the accident are on the LAFD Flickr page
  

Blue Line Critical Injures Motorist at San Pedro

Driver In Critical Condition After Metro Collision

KCBS-TV
March 9, 2006

LOS ANGELES ― One person was critically injured Tuesday in a collision between a Metro Blue Line train and a car at San Pedro Street and Washington Boulevard.

The driver of a small black car going west on Washington turned left in front of the southbound train, according to Gayle Anderson of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Tens minutes prior to the collision, a DASH bus slammed into a building in downtown Los Angeles at 7th and Hope streets.

Gold Line Takes Child's Limb because MTA was Too Cheap to Build a Fence

Freeway wreck involving commuter train kills three in Pasadena

Associated Press
August 12, 2004

PASADENA, Calif. - An automobile rolled over on a freeway Thursday, killing three people and injuring three others, including a boy who was hurled onto adjacent commuter rail tracks where a train severed one of his legs, authorities said.

The boy was in critical condition and two other surviving victims had major head injuries and broken bones, said Lisa Derdarian of the Pasadena Fire Department. Two others were hospitalized for emotional distress, she added. The identities of the victims were not immediately released.

The accident occurred about 10:10 a.m. on the Foothill Freeway. The Metro Gold Line light rail track runs down the median, separated from the east- and westbound lanes of the freeway by fences.

Two people died at the scene and a third was pronounced dead at a hospital, Derdarian said. No one on the train was hurt but service to and from the Pasadena terminal station was halted for about an hour, said Marc Littman, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Passengers had to use a station about a mile away, he said.

Pasadena is 16 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Blue Line Hits Tow Truck Kills 1 Injures 15

15 Hurt, 3 Critically, as Truck and Train Collide in Watts

Los Angeles Times
May 07, 1998

About 15 people were injured, three of them critically, when a Metro Blue Line train and a tow truck collided in Watts late Wednesday, authorities said.

The critically injured victims were the tow truck driver and two passengers, said Jim Wells, a spokesman for the city Fire Department. They were transported to local hospitals.

“The injuries to the passengers on the train appear to be minor in nature at this point,” Wells said.

The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. near East 115th Street and Wilmington Avenue, he said.

The train was heading south when it collided with the truck, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Ed Scannell said. The left side of the truck was crushed.

About 10 ambulances responded to the accident site. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

The Metro Blue Line runs between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach, carrying about 50,000 passengers a day.

(One of the critically injured reportedly died)

Blue Line Hits Two in Same Day

L.A. Train Accidents Injure 2

Sacramento Bee
July 11, 1995

STATE DIGEST

A pedestrian and motorist were injured in accidents involving Metro Blue Line commuter trains Monday, authorities said.

The pedestrian was identified only as a woman, about 60, who was in serious to critical condition after being struck by a Blue Line train, said Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells.

She was hospitalized at California Medical Center.

Earlier, a Blue Line train collided with a car that turned in front of it, police said.

The man was in critical but stable condition at County-USC Medical Center after surgery, said spokesman Harvey Kern.

Blue Line Kills 2 Year Old, 18 Year Old & Critically Injures 3 Children

2 Killed, 5 Hurt When Blue Line Train Hits Auto Accident
Crash claims lives of a young child and the driver, who apparently went around lowered crossing gates. Other victims are pried from wreckage.

Los Angeles Times
By Nieson Himmel & Jean Merl
November 17, 1993

Two people died and at least seven others were injured Tuesday night when a Blue Line train struck a car that apparently had driven around lowered crossing gates in Willowbrook, authorities said.

The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. near Willowbrook Avenue and 124th Street, a county Fire Department official said.

Killed were an 18-year-old woman, who was driving the car, and a child believed to be between 2 and 3. The five others in the car-three children and two adults-were critically injured. All had to be pried from the wreckage. The driver died at the scene and the child at a hospital, the California Highway Patrol said.

At least one person on the train complained of injuries, the CHP said. It could not be immediately determined whether they were serious.

Eyewitness Cesar Martinez said he heard the train "honk twice real loud. Then I saw this car wheeling around the gate, and the train hit it right in the middle. The car spun around.

"I rushed over and it looked like a massacre. I grabbed a child out of the car and a (deputy) handed me another."

Greg Davy, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Blue Line, said the northbound commuter train was traveling at 30 m.p.h. when the crash occurred. It rolled another 200 feet down the track before the operator could bring the 92,000-pound train to a stop.

Since it began operating in July, 1990, the Blue Line has been plagued with accidents, prompting authorities to step up security and to mount a campaign to keep vehicles from driving around crossing gates.

Tuesday night's collision raised the number of fatalities in Blue Line accidents to 16.

The previous fatal accident also was in Willowbrook. In May, two men in a stolen car drove onto the tracks in the path of an oncoming train and were killed.

Blue Line Kills 21 Year Old

Driver Killed, Passenger Injured in Car Hit by Blue Line Train

Los Angeles Times
By David Ferrell
September 13, 1992

One man was killed and another critically injured when a car swerved around a closed crossing gate and was crushed by an oncoming Metro Blue Line train Saturday in South Los Angeles, authorities said.

Vina Kim, 21, whose car sped around a crossing gate at 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue West, was killed as the southbound train knocked his 1984 Nissan into a metal power pole, witnesses and family members said.

The passenger in the car, whose name was not immediately available, had to be removed from the crushed car by firefighters and was reported in critical condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

The incident, shortly after 3 p.m., was believed to be the seventh fatal accident involving the 22-mile Blue Line route since it opened in July, 1990. Most of the fatalities, according to police, have involved drivers or pedestrians ignoring warning signs or crossing gates.

Heng Loeum, 19, a friend of Kim's who had been following in a separate car, said Kim's car was the second of three traveling in a caravan south on Long Beach Avenue West, a street running parallel to the Blue Line tracks, just before the accident.

As the cars reached a stop sign before turning east across the tracks onto 55th Street, Loeum said, two northbound trains were approaching from ahead of them. When the first train passed, the driver in the lead automobile skirted the closed crossing gate and made the left turn before the second train arrived. Kim, thinking he could make the same turn ahead of the northbound train, also drove around the closed gate, Loeum said.

Apparently, Kim did not see or hear the southbound Blue Line train that was roaring up from behind, Loeum said. That train struck Kim's car and it hurtled about 40 yards off the tracks and into the power pole, where it caught fire.

"Even me, I didn't see the train coming from the left . . . I didn't hear it," Loeum said. "If (Kim) had passed (through the intersection safely), I would have gone."

Loeum said he pulled over and made unsuccessful attempts to free the driver and passenger from the twisted wreckage before running to telephone police.

Before police arrived, Loeum said, about 15 bystanders attempted to help those in the car.

Blue Line Hits Compton Woman & Puts Her in Critical Condition

Blue Line Strikes Auto, Critically Injuring Driver

Los Angeles Times
January 16, 1991

A Metro Blue Line train collided with a small foreign car Tuesday, critically injuring a 38-year-old motorist who police say "drove around safety gates" at a Compton intersection.

The driver, Sherril McDowell, suffered major head, chest and rib cage injuries and her Volkswagen bug was crushed, Compton Police Lt. Joseph Flores said. She was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center for treatment.

McDowell was driving west on Alondra Boulevard approaching Willowbrook Avenue shortly before noon when she drove around railroad gates and into the path of the train, which was heading south about 40 m.p.h., Flores said.

The accident is thought to be the 35th involving the Blue Line since it began operating on July 14, a Rapid Transit District spokeswoman said.