20 Injured When Train Crashes into Car at Exposition Park

One person was left near death, and 19 people were hurt, when an Expo Line train hit a car that apparently turned in front of it at Exposition Park today.

The person driving a Hyundai Sonata was cut from the wreckage of the crumpled car, and reportedly near death at a hospital several hours after the crash.

In addition, there were one critical injury, one serious injury, and eight minor injuries reported in the crash, which was at 10:50 a.m., said Shawn Lenske of the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Another 10 train passengers were taken to area hospitals and found to be without injuries.

It was not known if the train operator was among the injured.

The train hit the Hyundai at a traffic signal between USC and the Museum of Natural History.

Metro spokesman Jose Ubaldo told City News Service the car and the train were both heading east, when the car made a left turn towards the USC gate and was hit by the electric light rail vehicle.

The train derailed, witnesses said.

Left turns such as that are regulated by a left turn arrow, and there are flashing alarms for approaching trains, which get stop signals if cars are turning across the grade crossing. As the investigation began, it was not immediately clear what the signals were at the time of the crash.

After the wreck, a picture shot from a USC office building across the street, and posted on the Internet, showed a crushed car on the westbound tracks at the Watt Drive signal, and a stopped train on the tracks usually used by trains heading from Culver City to downtown Los Angeles.

The crash was next to the Exposition Park Rose Garden, about halfway between the tunnel under Figueroa Street, and Vermont Street.

Expo Line service in both directions was cut, and firefighters were warned a half hour after the crash that the train line’s overhead power supply could not be immediately cut off. The train’s electric arms had been retracted but firefighters were warned that low voltage batteries might still be a hazard, firefighters were told.

Metro officials requested buses for a “bridge” to ferry passengers between the Vermont and 23rd Street stations on the Expo Line.

• City News Service
• Photo Credit: Twitter User NBC10 Philadelphia ‏@NBCPhiladelphia