LOS ANGELES — A driver was badly injured after his car collided with Metrolink train No. 220 on Tuesday afternoon in Burbank, according to local police.
The driver, 79-year-old Fawaz Khalil from Burbank, died later at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center.
The incident occurred about 3:17pm near the traffic-heavy intersection of Buena Vista Street and San Fernando Boulevard, a rail crossing notably reported by the Los Angeles Times as “one of Metrolink’s most dangerous.”
Khalil was traveling southbound on Buena Vista when his Toyota Camry was hit by a train going the same direction. The car’s lights and signals were working properly, but it appears Khalil tried to beat the oncoming Antelope Valley Line train by speeding through the crossing gates.
“It was unfortunate judgment,” said Burbank officer Joshua Kendrick, who is still investigating the tragic incident.
The car was completely “mauled up,” said witness Levon Gharibian, 24, who was present at the time of the collision.
As for the train, it did not derail, but there was considerable damage to its front cab, according to Metrolink spokesperson Jeff Lustgarten. There were also about 130 passengers on board, with reports of three minor injuries after the crash. The shaken passengers were transferred to another train.
Service on the following Antelope Valley Line trains 215, 217, 224, and 226 were all cancelled as a result of the accident, and Metrolink arranged for shuttle buses to transport passengers between Burbank and Sun Valley. The accident also affected other routes within the metro-Los Angeles area, as train congestion was quite heavy that afternoon.
Lustgarten added that the trains cannot steer off the tracks to avoid a collision, and they take a quarter to a half-mile to completely stop. Trains can also go as fast as 75-80 miles per hour.
Metrolink has taken numerous safety measures to remind drivers to not try to beat an oncoming train and passengers to not cross the tracks while the gates are coming down, but many still believe the warnings are not enough.
“Critics say Metrolink leaders have not paid enough attention to safety and have done little to upgrade dangerous intersections where streets cross the tracks,” a 2009 article by Doug Smith in the L.A. Times states. “In particular, the public railway has failed to adopt the sorts of safety systems and improvements developed and widely used by its sister agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. […] If any Metrolink official saw trouble coming, records show no evidence of action. After each accident, leaders of the regional rail system took no responsibility, choosing instead to invoke a standard industry convention: They blamed the deaths on motorists who ‘tried to beat the train’.”
The recent collision and Khalil’s death remains under investigation.
(With reports from Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Los Angeles Daily News.)
