Passenger Train Hits Dump Truck

SOMIS, Calif. —  An Amtrak passenger train struck a large dump truck at a crossing in rural Ventura County late Friday, critically injuring two people in the truck but causing mostly minor injuries to train passengers, authorities said.

The crash occurred at 8:25 p.m. in Somis as Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner headed south from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The train, which carried 240 passengers, slammed into the dump truck at a crossing near Somis Road and East Los Angeles Avenue, according to the Ventura County Fire Department and an Amtrak spokeswoman.

The dump truck broke into several pieces in the crash, and one of the two occupants had to be extracted by firefighters.

Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said Pacific Surfliner No. 796 left Santa Barbara shortly after 7 p.m. and had been expected to arrive in San Diego about midnight. The train was traveling about 60 mph when the accident occurred, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna said.

The train was being pushed by an engine car, not pulled. The front car partly derailed in the crash.

Firefighters said 20 passengers were taken to local hospitals with minor to moderate injuries.

Passengers said they heard only the sound of a crash and then screams. They said they did not hear the sound of brakes.

“All of a sudden there was a lunge and we clearly plowed into something,” passenger Gloria Rios said. “I knew we hit a car.”

The practice of pushing passenger trains with engine cars has been used for decades, but the commuter rail industry began reexamining such configurations after the deadly Jan. 26 collision of two Metrolink trains in Glendale.

Putting heavy locomotives at the rear of the train, some experts say, leaves passengers much more vulnerable to injury in frontal crashes.

The accident occurred in an area where the rail lines cross many rural roads, Luna said, and other accidents have been reported there.

Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this report.