Metrolink passenger on Irwindale train crash
David Gandolfi called in today after seeing our account on the Web site about the Metrolink crash this morning. Gandolfi, who lives in Highland, takes the train from San Bernardino to Baldwin Park. He works for the city of West Covina. Here are some of his observations:
"We had just left Covina westbound, and at a certain point, I was looking down below. All of the sudden, all I heard was 'get out' and saw two conductors and the engineer run from the front section."
"I yelled hold on, and then I turned around and grabbed on to my seat. In four to seven seconds, we collided with the truck. There was no warning. Then the conductor told us we hit something. No one was panicking. Another man got up and asked if everyone was OK and then sat back down."
"I was sitting on the upper deck, eight rows back from the front.
We all were sitting there quiet, and were there for about 45 minutes."
Gandolfi's only complaint, "no one ever came upstairs and asked us if we were all right. Someone could have been in shock up there."
I called Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell and asked her what the procedure was. She said in crashes like this the conductor is supposed to walk through and see if there are any injuries. I also asked if there was some type of warning to let passengers know before a crash. She said no, adding that conductors generally don’t have the time to warn passengers before hand. Frequent passengers feel and hear the sound of the brakes thrown and know to hang on, she said.
Tyrell also offered to speak with Gandolfi about his complaint, which I passed along.