LOS ANGELES — At least 55 other people had been hurt, two significantly, when a Metro gentle rail train and a University of Southern California commute bus collided Tuesday alongside a busy thoroughfare in downtown Los Angeles, officers mentioned.
The crash came about in a while prior to midday alongside Exposition Boulevard, close to the USC campus and Natural History Museum, in step with the L.A. Fire Department.
Two sufferers had been hospitalized with critical accidents and 16 others had been transported in honest situation, the dept mentioned. Another 37 other people had been handled on the scene.
Dave Sotero, a spokesperson for L.A. Metro, mentioned the bus crossed into the trail of an E Line train. The gentle rail line runs from East Los Angeles to downtown Santa Monica most commonly alongside streets, and now not all of the crossings have gates.
Genesis Hernandez used to be shifting from a Metro bus to catch the E Line to Santa Monica, the place she attends faculty when “all of a sudden I just saw a bunch of ambulances going by,” she recalled.
The 19-year-old used to be ready to view the crash scene from a platform on the Expo/Vermont Metro station. “The bus definitely got crunched on its front end,” she mentioned. “The train didn’t look too damaged.”
Television news photos confirmed the left aspect of the purple and white bus smashed in opposition to the primary automobile of the train. The entrance phase of the bus had vital harm.
The Starcraft 40-passenger bus used to be touring westbound on Exposition Boulevard with best the motive force and one passenger aboard when the collision befell, in step with a commentary from USC Transportation. The bus driving force and passenger had been the 2 maximum seriously injured, in step with fireplace division officers.
There had been greater than 150 passengers at the Santa Monica-bound Metro train, officers mentioned.
Sotero mentioned the Los Angeles Police Department can be in price of the investigation.
“Metro offers its sympathy to those injured in the accident,” Sotero mentioned in an e mail.
Exposition Boulevard used to be closed in each instructions right through the preliminary investigation. Metro mentioned its train provider can be restricted and buses can be used to get passengers throughout the crash space.
