At Least 21 Injured In Metro Train Crash Near USC
Video by ascurlock
Update | March 29, 2015, 10:50 a.m.: LAPD's South Traffic Division confirmed that the driver who was pulled out of the vehicle in critical condition is a 31-year-old USC film student. The identity of the student had not been released as of Sunday morning.
At least 21 people were injured when a Metro train crashed into a vehicle Saturday morning, according to the LAFD.
The accident happened at around 10:50 a.m. when the eastbound Expo Line train collided with a Hyundai Sonata in Exposition Park. One person in one of the vehicles was critically injured and had to be cut out of the car. Twenty passengers on the train were hurt, with one in critical condition. The rest were hurt to a lesser degree, according to paramedics.
The identities of the victims are unknown.
Pictures taken by witnesses show the train derailed.
Service on that stretch of the Expo Line was temporarily disabled. Buses were dispatched to transport passengers between the Vermont and 23rd street stations.
The train operators, even following this terrible incident, insist the intersection is "safe". Unbelievable. If this train had been functioning without incident for decades with a good safety record, they could perhaps say that, but this train has only been in operation less than three years, and has already experienced a major avoidable collision with dozens of injuries and what very possibly will be considered a fatality. They CANNOT put expense ahead of commuter safety, which is what they are trying to do-- this was a daytime accident that happened in clear weather... how many more such accidents need to happen... deaths and injuries... at night and/or in foul weather... before they are forced to upgrade the safety systems for that and similar intersections?