NTSB: Freight Train Ran Red In Crash

A freight train ran a red light moments before slamming into a commuter train outside Los Angeles on Tuesday, killing two and injuring about 260, investigators said Wednesday.

Investigators said they found no problems with railroad signals, equipment or the tracks, said Marion Blakey, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Blakey said the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight train should have stopped at the signal but rolled through it at 48 mph, hitting the then-stopped Metrolink, Blakey said. The freight train began breaking about 2,100 feet before the crash, slowing to 20 mph when it hit the commuter train.

The Metrolink engineer saw the freight train and stopped the commuter train about 10 seconds before impact, Blakey said.

The engineers of both trains survived. The two-man crew of the freight train jumped off their locomotive before the wreck.

The dead are identified as a 48-year-old man who died at the scene and a 59-year-old man who died at a hospital.

The force of the crash knocked the commuter train back nearly 400 feet. Commuters were hurled out of their seats in the train's three double-decker cars. People already standing were the most seriously hurt.

A passenger who was in the front of the train told a Los Angeles television station that the engineer came running down the aisle, shouting for everybody to get down.

The BNSF railroad owns and maintains the stretch of rail where the collision occurred. The BNSF runs 55 freight trains a day along the line also used by the commuter trains.

Earlier this month, a southbound Metrolink commuter train struck a tractor-trailer making a U-turn on the railroad tracks. The truck driver was killed, but none of the 115 passengers was hurt in that crash on April 8.