CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA – Another accident involving an Amtrak train occurred in the Chatsworth pass on Sunday, January 11, 2009, this time leaving one woman dead. The woman, who was hiking with her husband and her two sisters inside a railroad tunnel was struck by a grab bar protruding from the side of the train. Her husband and two sisters, who were able to squeeze against the tunnel wall, were uninjured. The woman was later identified by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office as 32-year-old Myra Mina-Calove of Woodland Hills, California. Amtrak is further investigating the incident.
News of another serious fatality incident made headlines late last year when a trian operated by Metrolink collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train in the same Chatsworth vicinity. In that accident, 25 people were killed. It is believed that the earlier accident occurred due to the inattentiveness of the operator of the Metrolink train, who believed to have been deeply involved in a phone-text conversation within the minutes leading up to the accident.