Los Angeles train crash: Driver of car extracted with ‘Jaws of Life’

Los Angeles train crash: Driver of car extracted with ‘Jaws of Life’

The train partially derailed near the USC campus, injuring 21 people.

More details are now available in the crash of a Los Angeles commuter train that derailed, hospitalizing 10 people, including two that were seriously hurt.

Authorities say a Metro Expo Line train crashed into a car and partially derailed near the University of Southern California campus, injuring 21 people, according to a CBS Los Angeles report.

The accident was on Exposition Boulevard between the USC campus and the Museum of Natural History at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to the fire department as quoted by the report.

The car was a Hyundai Sonata, and it was traveling eastbound alongside the train on Exposition when it suddenly turned north on USC Walkway right in front of the train, causing the derailment.

Eight of the 10 people hospitalized had minor injuries, one person was critical and another one was in grave condition.

Police used the Jaws of Life to extract the driver of the vehicle. He is a USC film student.

The operator of the train suffered serious injuries because a nearby steel fence penetrated the area where he was sitting. He was identified as Kenneth Gross, a man in his 50s who had been working in the agency for nearly three decades.

Authorities were trying to clear the wreckage as soon as possible because of a sold-out soccer game between Mexico and Ecuador that is scheduled to be played at the LA Coliseum Saturday evening. Metro plans to resume train service near USC by this morning.

The report indicated that the eastbound lanes of Exposition Boulevard had been closed near the crash, which closed off some access to USC.

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