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December 2, 2008 8:55:02 PM CST

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LA Train Crash Toll at 18; Passengers Still Trapped

Posted Sep 13, 08 9:32 AM CDT in US 

(Newser) – The death toll in the Los Angeles train crash yesterday rose to 18 this morning, with 135 injured and more passengers still trapped inside train cars. Crews worked through the night to tear apart the metal to reach passenger spaces. "There's human beings in there and it's going to be painstaking to get them out," the fire captain told the AP. "They'll have to surgically remove them." More than 220 people were on the Metrolink train, which collided with a freight train traveling on the same track.

Four were on the freight train. “This is the worst accident I've ever seen,” said LA’s mayor. "Clearly the injuries are going to mount and so are the fatalities." A federal investigation will examine how the collision occurred; at this point, “we are nowhere near having any information on that,” said a federal railroad rep. A train company spokeswoman noted that freight trains and commuter trains often share tracks.

Source Associated Press

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A gurney is lowered onto the wreckage as rescue and recovery work continues under floodlights after dark after a MetroLink commuter train collided with a freight train in L.A. Friday.   (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Firefighters work to rescue passengers at the site of a train crash Friday Sept. 12, 2008 in the Chatsworth section of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says at least 10 people have...   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Los Angeles City Fire Department firefighters and other local fire and rescue agencies work to free trapped victims from a Metrolink commuter train after a train crash Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Rescue personnel work at the scene of a train crash in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Hector Mata)
Rescue personnel work at the scene of a train crash in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Hector Mata)
An honor guard of police, firefighters and others stand in honor as the body of a Los Angeles Police Department Officer is carried from the wreckage Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Firefighters place the body of a Los Angeles Police Department Officer who was killed in the crash of a MetroLink train on a stretcher before removing it from the wreckage Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Los Angeles City Fire Department firefighters rescue a victim from the wreckage of a Metrolink commuter train after a train crash in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles on Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ryan Ling)
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