LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles-bound commuter train slammed into a tractor trailer stopped on the tracks in Oxnard, California, during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, injuring more than 30 people, some of them seriously, authorities said.
The truck driver fled following the collision but was apprehended by police and taken into custody, Ventura County Fire spokeswoman Margaret Remmen said. She did not know what charges the driver was facing.
The fiery crash just before 6 a.m. PST (1400 GMT) in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, overturned at least three double-decker Metrolink rail cars. Two other cars derailed but remained upright.
The force of the collision smashed the truck apart and images on local television showed burned-out chunks smoldering hours later.
There were no fatalities in the crash but 28 people were taken to six hospitals, some suffering significant head, neck and back traumas or broken bones, said Steve Carroll, Emergency Medical Services administrator, told reporters.
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Another 23 people were treated for lesser injuries at the scene, he said.
Authorities said the train, which had been traveling at 79 miles per hour before the crash, had anticipated the impact from some distance and had initiated emergency protocols before hitting the truck.
The incident caused significant delays across Metrolink train lines in Ventura County, forcing commuters onto buses. Oxnard is an affluent coastal city of some 200,000 people about 45 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it was sending a team to the scene.
The crash came three weeks after a Metro-North commuter train in New York struck a car at a railroad crossing under similar circumstances and derailed in a fiery accident that killed six people in the area’s worst rail crash in decades.
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By Dan Whitcomb and Eric Kelsey
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