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The
Orange County Register
Story appeared in
Fullerton section
on
page Cover
ID: 55082020
Illustration:
Edition: 1
Correction: | Placentia train wreck hits close to home
April 25,
2002
Byline:BARBARA GIASONE
Trainweb.com, lodged in the second floor of the Fullerton
train depot, quickly became a worldwide conduit for Tuesday's
Metrolink/freight crash in Placentia.
Dubbed the largest train web site in the world, the local operation
logged 3,400 unique hits -- one-time computer visits -- and 12,000 reloads
from those visiting the site several times within the first four hours of
the collision.
Co-owner Steve Grande offered a bonus.
He was driving to work along Orangethorpe Avenue when the
Burlington Northern freight slammed into the Metrolink at Richfield Road.
Grande grabbed his digital camera and starting snapping shots of the
triage area and the crushed metal. Within an hour, he had posted a
first-hand account and multiple pictures on the trainweb.com site.
``A lot of users can't get to our site it's so busy,'' co-owner Ray
Burns said early Tuesday. ``This is just like what happened Nov. 18, 1999
when the Metrolink and freight collided over by ConAgra.''
The Fullerton Transportation Center was relatively quiet after the
crash. The Riverside-to-San Juan Capistrano Metrolink route turns south at
the eastern Fullerton border before getting to the local depot. The BNSF
freight had just passed through the Fullerton station.
Linda Zander, a Metrolink field representative, waited to assist
unhurt passengers in the Bus Bridge service that shuttles travelers to
their destinations from the Fullerton bus center. By 11 a.m., no one had
arrived.
Cal State Fullerton passengers, who regularly trek from Riverside
to Orange County, travel to the Anaheim Canyon station, then take a
shuttle to the campus.
Bill Barrett, associate vice president of administration at CSF,
caught the crash-bound train in west Corona. Ironically, his morning
schedule included meetings with campus parking officials to discuss
initiatives for alternative transportation for students.
Instead, he pushed open doors in the second rail car to help
evacuate the seriously injured and ``walking wounded.'' Later, Barrett,
55, was treated and released at Anaheim Memorial Hospital for neck and
back pain.
``It's weird. When the train rolled into Corona it was so on time
they left a guy in the dust running to get on,'' Barrett said. ``When we
got to Placentia, we started the slow approach to the curve as usual, then
stopped as we've done other times.
``Within 10 seconds there was an explosion, our car was pushed way
back and glass was shattered all over,'' Barrett said. ``I was talking to
the man across the aisle about the advantages of commuting on the train
rather than on the 91.''
Barrett, who returned to his office early Tuesday afternoon,
confirmed he would continue to depend on Metrolink to get to work.
Loydene Keith, director of student affairs at CSF, was in the first
car. She suffered serious injuries and was transported to Anaheim General
Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Sandy Scheppman said Keith was discharged
Tuesday night.
Barrett said he knew of at least four other CSF students who were
aboard the Metrolink.
Back at the Fullerton station, chatter swirled in and around the
Santa Fe Café where PAX-TV cameras rolled. Owner Sandy Rish's medical
blessings were being filmed for ``It's a Miracle'' to be aired on the
cable channel during the summer.
Fullerton police officers Fred Casas and Bill Wallis, who helped
Rish survive a seizure three years ago, were called back to the scene to
reenact the situation.
.
In the passenger waiting area, Joey Gonzalez, 5, sat with his
mother after arriving on the Metrolink from San Juan Capistrano. Joey
decided it was a fun ride, but his mother wondered why the train was
rerouted through Orange.
``We didn't know anything about the crash,'' she said.
David Skates, 20, of Riverside also hadn't heard the disarming
news. Carrying his skateboard, he was trying to get home ``any way my dad
can get me a ticket.''
``News of the crash doesn't bother me,'' he said. ``I'd take the
train anytime over an
airplane.''
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