Engineer's family shoulders profound grief from train wreck

Engineer's family shoulders profound grief from train wreck

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2008
At 11:30 on the morning of Sept. 19, some 60 engineers and conductors gathered at a modest La Crescenta house. They had come to memorialize Robert Sanchez, the engineer killed a week earlier when the Metrolink train he was driving collided with a Union Pacific freight train.

The service was supposed to have been held at a mortuary, but after reporters learned of the arrangements, the family hastily moved the memorial to Sanchez's home, hoping for the chance to gather privately with his former co-workers.

Since their arrival in California, their grief had been made much more difficult by a crush of media attention. They were accosted at every turn, and the pressure grew more intense after Metrolink announced -- far too quickly, in the family's eyes -- that Sanchez had failed to stop at a red signal and caused the crash.

The mourners came bearing pizzas, sodas and cakes. One brought a flower arrangement in the shape of a cross, which Sanchez's family placed far from the window for fear that someone might throw a brick. Three Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies stood guard outside.

A minister from Sanchez's union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, spoke. His co-workers recalled trading recipes with Sanchez and accompanying him to Mighty Ducks and Kings games. They told the family they would help find homes for Sanchez's four Italian greyhounds.
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With traumatic injuries, what you can't see may hurt most

With traumatic injuries, what you can't see may hurt most
In disasters such as the Metrolink train crash, concealed internal wounds are often the most dangerous. Trauma centers at UCLA and elsewhere are designed specifically to treat such critical patients.
By Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 22, 2008
In the 10 days since one of the worst commuter rail accidents in California history, the region's trauma surgeons have reknit shattered limbs, repaired battered organs and returned dozens of patients to homes and families, where many will now face weeks or months of painful recuperation.

Twenty patients remain in the region's hospitals as a result of the Sept. 12 head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Four were still in critical condition Sunday.

The most obvious injuries were the open fractures, where splintered bones in arms and legs had punched through skin, spilling tissue and blood. But the biggest threat to those who survived the initial impact was the hidden mayhem inflicted on lungs, hearts, brains, livers and other internal organs when the train came to a dead stop, slamming bodies into seat backs, tables, the steel sides of the train cars and one another.

"It would be like standing against a wall and having a car hit you at 40 mph," said Dr. Henry Gill Cryer, trauma director for the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where several of the badly injured were treated.

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Metrolink 111 engineer led solitary life marred by tragedy

Metrolink 111 engineer led solitary life marred by tragedy

Those who knew him say he had a passion for trains and Italian greyhounds. But his companion killed himself in 2003 and he had run-ins with the law.
By David Kelly and Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 17, 2008

Those who knew Robert M. Sanchez say he was a relentlessly upbeat man with a passion for trains and Italian greyhounds. At the same time, the Metrolink engineer led a solitary life in recent years and was intensely private, sharing little about a past that included tragedy and run-ins with the law.

Sanchez died Friday at the helm of a Metrolink train after apparently failing to stop at a signal near Chatsworth and colliding with an oncoming Union Pacific train. The crash, the worst in modern California history, killed 24 others and injured 135.
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Metrolink toll rises to 26 as somber commuters board trains again

Metrolink toll rises to 26 as somber commuters board trains again
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joins riders this morning in Chatsworth. Also, Metrolink's spokeswoman resigns after she is criticized for saying the crash was caused by an engineer's mistake.
By Jennifer Oldham, Steve Hymon and Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
1:57 PM PDT, September 15, 2008

A 26th person who was in the Metrolink train collision in Chatsworth died today, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said.

The victim was a white man in his 50s, who was pronounced dead at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the coroner's office.
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also

Free counseling offered in wake of train crash
Mon, 15 Sep 2008 9:44:14 AM
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health will be providing the counseling at two centers daily.
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