GLENDALE, Calif. – A Metrolink (search) commuter train slammed into a tractor-trailer rig Monday night, injuring at least seven people, officials said.
Four passengers on the train and the truck driver suffered minor injuries, said Denise Tyrrell, a Metrolink spokeswoman. Two people in a car next to the truck also received minor injuries from flying debris, she said.
"He was a very lucky man," Tyrrell said of the truck driver. "Not too many people get hit by a train and get to talk about it."
The train was heading from Lancaster (search) to downtown Los Angeles' Union Station when it rammed into the rear of the truck's trailer shortly before 8 p.m. in suburban Glendale, Tyrrell said.
The truck driver had cleared the tracks but backed up as the crossing gate was coming down because the driver realized he had started to turn the wrong way onto an adjacent street, she said. Other drivers began honking to warn him of the approaching train but he apparently did not hear them, she said.
In January, a Metrolink train traveling through Glendale (search) crashed into a Jeep, derailed and slammed into an oncoming train, killing 11 people and injuring nearly 200. The Jeep's owner, Juan Manuel Alvarez, allegedly parked his vehicle on the tracks, then abandoned it as a train approached. Alvarez, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and arson.
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