LOCAL : Train Derails in Mt. Washington

A freight train derailed today and one of the cars plowed into an apartment building, but no injuries were reported in the third Southern California train derailment in a month.

Twelve cars of the freight train derailed just after 10 a.m. in the Mt. Washington neighborhood near the Pasadena Freeway, city Fire Department spokesman Pat Marek said.

The cause of the derailment was unknown.

“One of those freight cars did hit an apartment building,” he said. “There were no injuries reported from that apartment building being hit.”

One of the cars also carried an unidentified hazardous material, but no leaks were found, Marek said.

The derailment was the third in Southern California in the last month. Fourteen runaway railroad cars collided with a locomotive in Pico Rivera on Sept. 9, and about two weeks later, a boxcar loaded with Navy munitions jumped the tracks in Westminster. No one was injured in either derailment.