Human error to blame for California train crash

LOS ANGELES - An engineer's mistake caused a deadly head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train near Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people with toll expected to rise, officials said Saturday.

The crash happened late Friday when a Metrolink passenger train with 222 people aboard apparently failed to stop at a signal near Chatsworth, 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, and smashed into a freight train.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the wreck as "one of the worst train accidents in modern history in California," and officials said more people were still trapped beneath the twisted metal of a double-decker train car.

"We are deeply sorry and we are totally at a loss," said a Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrell.

"At this moment we must acknowledge that it was a Metrolink engineer that made the error that caused yesterday's accident."

A Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman told CNN that the rescue operation officially ended late Saturday, with the focus now on the recovery effort.

"They worked thoroughly and meticulously to check every single person and every single corner they could possibly find. It was long and it was focused. Now, it has ended and officially being turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board," Steve Whitmore said.

The federal officials take control of the investigation once rescue efforts conclude.

At least 135 people were injured in the crash between the Ventura County Line passenger train 111 and a Union Pacific freight train Friday.

Each train was believed to be travelling at the time of the head-on collision at about 37 miles (60 kilometers) per hour.

The impact collapsed the first passenger car into its locomotive.

At least seven cars from the freight train derailed, although most remained standing in accordion fashion across the tracks.

The interior of the train was "bloody, a mess. Just a disaster. It was horrible," passenger Austin Walbridge told a local television news reporter.

The Metrolink train's usual routine is reportedly to wait until the Union Pacific freight train clears the track.

"There are more bodies in the wreckage, but this point there is no way to tell how many," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters.

Captain Ed Winters of the coroner's office said more bodies were visible in the wreckage of a double-decker passenger car.

"We have several (bodies) that are visible (in the lower car) at this time but I don't want to cause some hurt for families that don't know and are still waiting," for notification, Winters said.

The extent of the devastation and the high number of critically injured passengers taxed the area's emergency response capabilities, Los Angeles City Fire captain Steve Ruda said.

"We treated 135 patients yesterday, about 40 of those were critical patients, which is a very high number," Ruda said earlier.

Critical patients were flown to area trauma centers. "We utilized every trauma center in the county," he said.

The crash was the deadliest since the Metrolink crash of January 2005, when 11 people died and dozens were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a Jeep Cherokee parked on train track, derailed and hit a freight train.