Since the 2008 Chatsworth disaster, safety incidents involving Metrolink trains never fail to find a spot in media coverage. A man was recently killed in an accident involving a Metrolink train near Santa Clarita station.
The man was allegedly hit by train number 209 near Reuther Avenue and Golden Triangle Road. There is no information on how the man got on the tracks, or what caused the accident.
However, no Los Angeles train accident attorney would ignore the fact that this was the 2nd accident involving a Metrolink train in recent weeks. Just last month, 2 people were injured in an accident involving a Metrolink commuter train and a tractor-trailer.
In that accident, the train was on its way eastbound from the Oxnard Station Terminal, when it struck a flatbed trailer. The driver of the truck and a male passenger suffered injuries, and had to be taken to the hospital. A woman on the train also suffered injuries. The accident also led to a minor oil spill from the tractor-trailer, but environmental crews were able to contain the damage quickly.The truck in that accident appears to have been on the tracks at the time of accident. However, as any Los Angeles train accident lawyer knows, it is not always easy to gauge the speed of an approaching train.
Metrolink’s passenger safety record was effectively downsized on September 12, 2008, after the Chatsworth train accident. In that accident, a commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 people and injuring more than 100 others. Some of the victims of that accident are still suffering the long-term consequences of those injuries. It was the worst train accident in the United States in recent history, and since then, Metrolink has undergone a safety overhaul. But concerns about the rail system remain.
