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American Morning

NTSB To Look At Data Recorders for California Train Wreck

Aired April 24, 2002 - 07:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As you know, the sun is not quite up in California. And officials there are still trying to figure out what happened yesterday, when you had a frightening commuter train collision.

The NTSB and a lot of other people want to know how it is that a freight train actually hit a commuter train head on during the morning rush hour. Two people were killed, more than 260 hurt.

CNN's Anne McDermott has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mile-long freight train collided with a small commuter train in Placentia, California this morning, throwing passengers around the cars.

ROBERTO ALMEIDA, PASSENGER: There was a loud crash, you know. I had never heard anything like it before.

MCDERMOTT: This local resident saw it all.

JACKIE BISESI, WITNESS: I started screaming, "Oh my God, they're on the same track. They're going to hit. They're going to hit." And then right when I got there they hit, and the force of the hit threw me backwards.

MCDERMOTT: Besides the dead, there were dozens of people injured seriously enough to go to the hospital, and at least 100 others on the Metrolink train were classified as "walking wounded."

"Pregnant, but OK," she said. And these women were simply shaken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you? Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, I'm fine, thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm fine.

MCDERMOTT: As dazed passengers waited, while some 30 ambulances pulled up at the scene, investigators were trying to figure out what happened.

An NTSB team member said, as they do at plane crashes, they'll look at the so-called black boxes.

TED TURPIN, NTSB: OK a black box from an engine would show the speed, would show the position of the throttle, would show the position of the brakes.

MCDERMOTT: And maybe show a bit of the horror of a sunny morning rush hour gone terribly wrong.

Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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