Camarillo Tracks Open After Weekend Amtrak, Car Crash
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A railroad track in Camarillo was open Monday following a weekend collision between a car and an Amtrak train bound for Los Angeles, just a few miles away from the site of a major derailment earlier last week.
The Ventura County Fire Department reported that the crash was at Fifth Street at Pleasant Valley Road in Camarillo about 8 p.m. Sunday and involved Pacific Surfliner train 796 en route to Camarillo, Los Angeles and San Diego, Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said. It originated in Goleta and had already made stops in Santa Barbara and Oxnard.
The two people in the vehicle – apparently a green sedan – had evacuated before the train arrived. After the crash, firefighters boarded the train to assess possible injuries, Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Mike Lindberry said.
Schulz said there were 86 passengers aboard and they were bused to Los Angeles. He did not know the number of crew members on the train.
The track was blocked for several hours, Ventura County Fire Capt. Stan Ziegler said. The car was removed from the tracks by 9 p.m. Sunday, but the train removal took several more hours.
That grade crossing is, like the scene of the last crash, surrounded by farm fields. It is 3 miles east of the crossing at Rice Avenue in Oxnard, where a Metrolink commuter train hit a truck last Tuesday. Twenty-eight train passengers and crew were injured in that crash.
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