Topic Archive: Accidents & disasters
Ron Kaye's new organ for his activist brand of politics and news, OurLA.org, ran a long piece yesterday claiming to debunk the "meltdown myth" regarding the 1959 nuclear reactor incident...
Posted July 30, 2009 9:55 AM
Metrolink has agreed to pay the agency's former spokeswoman $135,500 to settle potential claims arising from her departure. Denise Tyrrell resigned last September after being criticized by some Metrolink officials...
Posted May 5, 2009 1:07 PM
When I read about the horrible crash where Angeles Crest Highway dumps out at Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada Flintridge, I wondered if the semi-truck driver had used the sand...
Posted April 2, 2009 1:15 PM
Among the texts that engineer Robert Sanchez sent before the fatal crash in Chatsworth last September were messages arranging to let enthusiasts ride in the cab later that evening. Details...
Posted March 3, 2009 1:42 PM
This might be the story of the weekend. Robert Sanchez, the engineer driving the Metrolink train that crashed in Chatsworth last September, not only texted regularly with teenagers along his...
Posted March 1, 2009 12:06 PM
On Sept. 12, a Metrolink commuter train headed for Simi Valley and Moorpark smashed head-on into a southbound Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five passengers and crew have died...
Posted January 3, 2009 3:35 PM
The NTSB says that Robert Sanchez, the engineer whose Metrolink train ran head-on into a freight train in Chatsworth, sent a text message 22 seconds before the crash that has...
Posted October 1, 2008 2:22 PM
In a personal reflection on his county website, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky writes about going to the scene of the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth and talking with the relatives of victims....
Posted September 24, 2008 10:05 AM
When Conan O'Brien began a bit last night (this morning actually) about trains crashing together, KNBC Channel 4 cut in with anchor Colleen Williams introducing footage of Sen. John McCain's...
Posted September 23, 2008 10:41 PM
My KCRW segment on Friday said that Denise Tyrrell deserves our respect for cutting to the chase in her statements on the Metrolink disaster in Chatsworth. Listen here (or grab...
Posted September 21, 2008 10:53 PM
Veolia, the French multinational company that provided Metrolink with engineer Robert Sanchez, is already facing trial in Los Angeles federal court on suits alleging the firm routinely denied workers' rest...
Posted September 19, 2008 12:25 AM
Three calls to 911 are up on the LAFD news blog: one from a passenger on the Metrolink train, one from the adjacent school and another from up on the...
Posted September 18, 2008 1:12 AM
Chuck Peck's cell phone called family members 35 times on Friday night and Saturday during the hours while they waited to hear whether he had survived the Metrolink train crash...
Posted September 17, 2008 11:46 AM
Only four seconds elapsed from the time the two engineers could have seen each other around the curve in Chatsworth where the Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight...
Posted September 17, 2008 12:40 AM
Signs have begun going up in Downtown advising commuters. A funeral procession for Officer Spree Desha will begin at Parker Center at 8:45 am Thursday and move to the Cathedral...
Posted September 16, 2008 1:32 PM
Gregory Lintner walked away from the deadly 2005 Metrolink crash in Glendale &mdash and was hailed as a hero — but died in last week's head-on accident in Chatsworth. Two...
Posted September 16, 2008 12:48 AM
The man in his 50s died today at County-USC Medical Center. His name has not yet been released. The Los Angeles County coroner's office today also formally identified the engineer...
Posted September 15, 2008 3:53 PM
Former Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell, who resigned overnight when the agency's board did not back up her statements about the engineer's culpability in the Chatsworth train crash, just talked to...
Posted September 15, 2008 11:32 AM
Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell, who had said publicly on Saturday that the agency's engineer ran a red light and caused the Chatsworth train crash, resigned after the agency's board released...
Posted September 15, 2008 7:53 AM
A Metrolink dispatcher reportedly called train 111 to alert the engineer that a freight train was ahead, but reached the conductor too late. LAT Two more names of the...
Posted September 14, 2008 5:26 PM
Channel 2 aired reports tonight showing text messages reportedly sent by Metrolink contract engineer Robert Sanchez just before his train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train, killing at...
Posted September 13, 2008 11:22 PM
Here's a partial list from the Los Angeles County Coroner's office (via Associated Press) of the passengers and crew killed in Friday's Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth. City News Service...
Posted September 13, 2008 7:35 PM
Paul Long, an English teacher at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, died this afternoon after being taken off life support at County-USC Medical Center. He had been riding the...
Posted September 13, 2008 3:35 PM
The 18th victim, possibly the Union Pacific freight train engineer, was pulled from the scene about 8:45 am. Authorities say that more bodies remain in the wreckage of Metrolink train...
Posted September 13, 2008 10:05 AM
The Los Angeles Police Department officer who died in the Chatsworth train collision was identified by the LAPD as Spree Desha, a seven-year veteran who worked in the Office of...
Posted September 12, 2008 11:24 PM
Channel 7 says an unidentified Los Angeles Police Department officer has been confirmed dead in the Chatsworth Metrolink crash. Updates from media monitoring: * Rescue workers have been pulled out...
Posted September 12, 2008 8:56 PM
First news round-up, second news round-up, media scan. Blood donations of all types are needed in the wake of the Chatsworth train crash, UCLA Medical Center says. The UCLA Blood...
Posted September 12, 2008 8:51 PM
First news round-up, second news round-up. At 8:30 pm, Channels 2 and 7 are the only Los Angeles TV stations still airing full coverage. The Los Angeles Times story (timestamp...
Posted September 12, 2008 8:40 PM
Information on victims will be gathered and distributed to families at Chatsworth High School, at De Soto Avenue and Devonshire Street. Thats's also where families will be reunited. Family members...
Posted September 12, 2008 8:17 PM
Picking up from the earlier roundup: * It's a bit clearer now what probably happened. A source with good connections in the transit agencies emails that Ventura-bound Metrolink train #111...
Posted September 12, 2008 7:28 PM
An outbound Metrolink train headed for Moorpark collided with a freight train on the Chatsworth side of Santa Susana Pass. Cars are off the tracks and rescues are underway. Triage...
Posted September 12, 2008 5:01 PM
