Glendale Train Crash, January Two Thousand Five
California
On January twenty-sixth, two thousand five, a man parked his SUV on the Metrolink tracks at Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale and walked away, intending to die by suicide. He changed his mind and escaped. The vehicle was still on the tracks when a southbound Metrolink commuter train struck it at six oh three in the morning, derailing into a second train on an adjacent track.
Eleven people were killed and about one hundred seventy-seven were injured in one of the deadliest rail disasters in California history. The man who left the SUV was convicted of murder. The Atwater Village Neighborhood Council placed this memorial near the crash site to remember those who died and to honor the first responders and bystanders who helped survivors in the immediate aftermath.
It stands as a reminder of the ordinary commuters whose morning became a catastrophe without warning.
