SoCal train derailment leaves dozens injured

According to the Los Angeles Times, a spokesperson for Metrolink — the LA area’s passenger rail system — said that the pre-dawn crash occurred just before 6 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning when a commuter train collided with a tractor trailer.

Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson told the Times that three train cars detailed due to the collision and at least 30 people were injured. Three hours after the crash, Fox News reported that the number of injured victims had reached 51, including four people in critical condition.

Sgt. Denise Shadinger of the Oxnard police told the Associated Press that the truck became fully engulfed in flames as a result of the crash. Photographs from the scene show that the vehicle was split in two and all but obliterated from the collision, but the driver managed to survive, according to a local NBC News affiliate. Later in the day, the LA Times reported that the driver has since been taken into custody.

Oxnard is a city of around 203,000 situated roughly 65 miles west of LA. The crash occurred on the Ventura County Line tracks near the intersection of 5th Street and Rice Avenue at around 5:45 a.m., according to local media, when the Metrolink train reportedly struck a truck on its tracks.

Tuesday morning’s incident unfolded three weeks after a commuter train near New York City struck an SUV on its tracks, killing six.