Chatsworth Train Collision
The Chatsworth train collision happened on September 12, 2008, in the Chatsworth section of Los Angeles, California, when a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on. The train collision was one of the worst in California history, with 25 persons killed. Metrolink suffered a $500 million loss as a result of this tragic miscalculation.
The Chatsworth train collision occurred on a curved portion of single track approximately east of Stoney Point on the Metrolink Ventura County Line. The Metrolink train raced past a red signal before entering a portion of single track where the opposing freight train had been given the right of way by the train dispatcher, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigated the cause of the crash. The NTSB blamed the incident on the Metrolink train's engineer, Robert M. Sanchez, 46, who was distracted by text texts he was sending while on duty.
The city and county of Los Angeles responded with a major emergency response, but the nature and depth of physical injuries exhausted the available resources. Officer Tom Gustofson, the first to arrive, characterized the catastrophe as "beyond human description." The Los Angeles Police Department requested California Emergency Mobile Patrol Search and Rescue (CEMP) as a first responder (LAPD). With twenty-five people killed, this was Metrolink's bloodiest accident. Many survivors had to stay in the hospital for a long time.
Total loss: $500 million
