News just coming in. This morning a crash,apparently head-on, between a Metrolink (commuter)train and a freight. Word is a derail and fire. Metrolinks generally travel at about 60mph. How can they be sharing the line?

-- wondering (wondering@nottoo.far), November 18, 1999

Answers

Two dead in train crash in northwest Iowa; injuries in California crash 12.34 p.m. ET (1744 GMT) November 18, 1999 (AP)  A freight train struck an empty grain train in northwest Iowa, killing a conductor and the driver of a van that was parked by the tracks. A second train accident injured at least 15 in California today.

Northeast of Sioux City, five locomotives and 30 cars derailed between the two trains in the collision late Wednesday, Mark Davis, an Omaha, Neb.-based spokesman for Union Pacific, said today. Both trains were Union Pacific trains.

The conductor of the freight train, Paul Schmidt, 23, was killed. The name of the van driver, who was on the scene to shuttle crew members from the stopped train, was not released.

The grain train was parked on the main tracks when the southbound freight train hit it at the junction with a side track. A fire broke out, but it was extinguished.

"We're investigating why the freight train didn't go on to the side track,'' Davis said. He did not know if the tracks are switched automatically or by hand.

In Fullerton, Calif., a MetroLink commuter train with about 65 passengers struck a freight train today, injuring at least 15 people.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train and MetroLink train "sideswiped each other, resulting in some fire,'' MetroLink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said.

The MetroLink engine and several freight cars were overturned, but passenger cars stayed upright. Some overturned freight cars caught fire; the flames were extinguished.

The MetroLink train left Los Angeles about 7:45 a.m. on a run to Oceanside in San Diego County. The train was relatively uncrowded because most commuters are going toward Los Angeles at that hour. The accident happened near the Fullerton train depot.

The cause of the collision wasn't immediately known, Hidalgo said.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), November 18, 1999.

Orange County CA crash was a sideswipe rather than a head on. But early reports seem to indicate a switching problem.

-- 5R2k (fiver2000@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

Fullerton crash was two miles from my home. Major rail lines through Fullerton, a hub for Amtrak, Metrolink, major freight haulers...

Breaking news this morning on all the local channels...news helicopters above like carrion birds. Ya hadta be there. No serious injuries...

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), November 18, 1999.