Horrific Train Crash Has Firefighters Scrambling For Survivors | Critical Rescue S1 EP3 | Wonder

[Music] two trains on a collision course threatened hundreds of unsuspecting commuters in a terrifying instant the passengers lives hang in the balance we want to stop the bleeding get them out and get them to the hospital joined in a life-and-death struggle firefighters raced to free victims trapped in the wreckage we've got now a real disaster and we don't know how many patients were going to get hospitals prepare to treat the flood of injured and dying victims of this fateful journey [Music] in this program some of the names have been changed [Music] in California freight trains move millions of pounds of cargo from southern ports to the entire United States on April 23rd 2002 a train carrying thousands of tons of cargo headed out of Los Angeles the day was warm and sunny glaring sunlight made it difficult to see the engineer look for a signal light that would tell him whether it was safe to pass [Music] he thought the track was clear [Music] the train barreled through the light at nearly 50 miles per hour at this speed it would take almost 3 miles to stop [Music] at 7:29 a.m. a commuter train departed Riverside California it was on its daily runs south a trip of 53 miles like most commuter trains it shares tracks with larger heavier freight trains a complex system of switches and signals keeps them apart each morning this commuter train carries nearly 300 passengers from their homes in Riverside California to their jobs in Anaheim and points further south but was a pleasant way to get to work a smooth ride no traffic and the company of fellow commuters Charlie Watts rode the train every day he worked at a branch office of Bluebird bus company in Orange California when to work was just wonderful because he did have a group that you knew and it was early morning and it was a fresh start of the day so it became a real social event and a real tight group that you got to know part of Charley's group was Lloyd Dean Keith who rode the train to Cal State Fullerton where she was Dean of Students while some passengers socialized others use the commute to read and work William Carter liked to sit on the upper level of the double-decker train it was quieter and there were tables to work on he was preparing to teach a course at his church [Music] for the passengers aboard the train it was a typical morning commute [Music] but several miles away a 6000 ton freight train was heading in their direction [Music] [Music] oblivious to the danger Matthew Schwager tried to get a jump on the workday so I pulled out the computer and started to do some work and I was just checking email just doing some some replies to the prior days email I was writing backwards on the train backwards to the direction of travel ruth carlson and her friend Liz Benson were seated near Matthew Ruth was five months pregnant with her first child April 23rd was Lizzie's birthday there's a social aspect of it there's quite a bit of small talk and chatting that goes on you get to know the people that they ride around you [Music] Cinthia Runnels also caught the train each morning it was a nice wonderful quiet day sat in my same spot I always sit in talk to all the same people which I see every day in the same car and everything seemed fine [Music] conductor Peter Pulse encountered a total of 240 passengers on board as the train approached a switching station engineer Mike Duggan slowed to 25 miles per hour with 10 years of experience under his belt he expertly controlled the engine and brakes from a small cab at the front of the first car as the train approached the intersection of orange Thorpe and Ridgefield Road the crossing gates began to close Brian Shaw the music director at New River Friends church was stuck at the intersection he passed the time by calling his wife the two trains barreled into view [Music] Tushar looked as if they were on the same track inside the cab of the commuter train engineer Mike Duggan spotted the headlights of a freight train it was heading straight for them [Music] Duchin grabbed the emergency brake for a retired Air Force veteran like Charlie Watts the sound of the train's brakes signaled trouble emergency procedure releasing all the air so I knew that one normal the engineer of the freight train saw the approaching commuter train and pulled the brake lever the brakes on the train grabbed at the wheels as the six thousand ton train slid forward michael Duchin knew the freight train couldn't stop in time it was going to hit them head-on he had to warn the passengers his face looked like he just saw death but he didn't tell us exactly what was happening he just said to get on the ground he ran through the first car warning passengers to brace themselves for a collision [Music] slowly but surely the commuter train came to a complete stop the train actually stopped so I looked up and looked around to see what was happening and I noticed that we were actually stopped on a road what caught my attention is off to my left hand side there was a white pickup truck and that pickup truck started to back up away from the Train in the first car second stick by nothing happened dajin thought the freight train had also managed to stop the engineer and the conductor went up front to check it out the freight train was still coming [Music] seconds later the unthinkable happened [Music] the impact was captured by a nearby security camera the mile-long freight train slammed into the commuter train with a force of an explosion the impact was so great it shoved the lighter commuter train 337 feet down the tracks nearly all the passengers were knocked unconscious Michael Duggan had been thrown against a partition Peter Paulson never made it to the back of the Train he was thrown through the car and slammed his head in the back of a seat as the passengers lay helplessly the cars began to fill with smoke [Music] witnesses to the crash frantically called 905 Communications dispatch received the call the first report was garbled according to dispatcher John dimitru one of the other dispatchers here in the command center received a 9-1-1 call it there had been an accident that occurred of a automobile versus a train the person was obviously excited giving us the information very very quickly the dispatcher alerted police and rescue personnel officer Kelly Kenna Hanna the Placentia Police Department was one of the first to respond there was a broadcast over the radio that there had been a train collision I was automatically thinking that it was possibly their train versus a bicycle or a train versus a vehicle [Music] john de monaco battalion chief of the Orange County Fire Authority was called to the scene and I received a dispatch message train versus vehicle I turned on the red lights and the sirens and started heading to that location he was only minutes from the crash site on board the commuter train the passengers slowly regained consciousness [Music] Charlie Watts was bruised and bleeding he couldn't believe his eyes everything that could move mood including people they were just thrown everywhere tremendous amount of head injuries blood everywhere officer Kenna had was unprepared for what he saw the Metrolink train was absolutely it was off the tracks that actually buckled and there was still appear to be a lot of people inside witnesses to the crash also rushed forward to help [Music] the doors of the train were jammed the cars were filling with smoke the passengers were trapped in panicking a volunteer grabbed anything he could find to force the doors open [Applause] [Music] inside the Train Cynthia Runnels regained consciousness I didn't understand what happened I didn't understand right away what happened I heard people crying screaming blood all over there's a lot of injured people the doors to the second car were also jammed and the impact a woman had fallen against them it knocked her unconscious and forced her head through the opening [Music] one bystander was familiar with the trains emergency exits he smashed the release Brian char helped carry the woman to safety [Music] on board the train officer Kenna Han tended to the injured dozens had suffered traumatic head injuries he called for backup chief demonaco arrived a few minutes later the crash was like nothing he had ever seen before dozens of injured passengers had already struggled from the Train many more were still inside I know I have a problem I had people on the car that were probably a much more serious condition than the people I was able to see I had no idea how many people were inside the cars I know those cars hold over a hundred people each I didn't know if they were capacity the initial report had erroneously described a train versus vehicle collision but this was a nightmare chief Demonica would need all the help you could get I told dispatch that we had a train versus train collision that I had about 40 to 50 people outside of the trains I was declaring a mass casualty incident John dimitru took the call now we're looking at a real potential of serious injuries we've got possible fatalities within two minutes Engine Company 34 was dispatched to the crash site [Music] Jim shook is a paramedic trained in mass casualty incidents we were advised by our dispatch that this was actually a train versus train there is no seatbelts in a train car and it's pretty evident that when you get in an accident that you fly forward or in the direction of works impacted at that point we discussed that if this was a train that had a lot of victims that we were going to need to do triaging and set up medical communications on the upper level of the second car smoke filled the compartment the passengers were terrified they thought fire had broken out on the lower level they were now trapped on a burning train [Music] on April 23rd 2002 outside of Anaheim California a passenger train carrying nearly 300 commuters was hit head-on by a freight train [Music] Fire and Rescue crews rushed to the scene as the train cars filled with smoke passengers struggled to get out a woman on the top level of the second car pushed out a window [Music] witnesses to the crash helped any way they could [Music] [Music] Matthew Schwager had been working on his computer when the trains collided then the the violent shaking stopped and the train was filled with smoke there was a lot of screaming people were screaming and crying and that's that was the only thing I heard people's panic and the panic in the train was just absolutely intense you could you could feel it I stood up I guess I realized I could stand up I didn't even think about it I stood up I didn't feel anything I saw the cuts I saw that I was hurt and perceived that I'd been hurt but I didn't feel anything and just went immediately to this woman that was on the floor she looked like she was incredible pain I thought maybe her legs are broken I asked her Ken can you feel your feet and touched her feet to see if she can feel herself I just went into a kind of a response mode to try to to help people that seemed to be in worse condition that I was Brian char ventured inside the Train he was worried he had seen liquid draining from the cars the interior smelled like something was burning your first thought is there's gonna be an explosion or a fire something we need to get everybody away get everybody out ignoring the danger he helped people one by one a businessman had a badly injured leg char helped pulled him from beneath a seat Ruth Carlson was five months pregnant she thought her water had broken and she was too badly injured to move char stayed by her side it really struck a chord with me that I just immediately started praying that oh god I pray that she's okay that her baby's okay my wife is in her mid 30s and this guy was in her mid-30s and we just had a baby about six months before and so I was really concerned for her in the third car dazed passengers tried to understand what had happened to them in post 9/11 America many thought the train had been attacked by terrorists they struggled to get off [Music] Charlie Watts stayed inside to care for a woman with a bleeding head injury she told him her name was Patricia he watched helplessly as blood pooled on the floor beneath her she thought she was gonna die and so did I but I didn't want to tell her that I thought there was internal injuries and she was just so bleeding and I said you know she could bleed to death of course somebody gets to her within minutes of getting the call the Fire and Rescue Squad from Orange County arrived on scene chief demonaco dispatched paramedics with rescue equipment it was their job to triage the victims and stabilize the injured it's very important to work quickly especially in a situation where we could have trauma injuries and people can be bleeding we want to get him out we want to stop the bleeding and get him out and get him to the hospital Orange County firefighters were the first rescuers to board the train they took over for officer Kenna Han securing the victim in a neck brace like most of the passengers she had been knocked unconscious in the crash they were concerned she had also sustained neck and spinal cord injuries paramedic Jim shook was stunned by the devastation as we get up to the train car I stepped in and I kind of surveyed the area there were people that were injured laying down there was a lot of blood and other body fluids that were on the floor as well as the ceiling I announced to the passengers that were within the car that anybody who could stand up and hear my name they needed to exit the car what that does for us is it separates what we call the walking wounded from the patients that are more severely injured [Music] paramedic Jim shook triaged victims he needed to assess their injuries quickly and move them to safety firefighters working outside the Train had not yet sounded the all-clear if a container carrying hazardous or flammable substances had ruptured in the crash they could all be killed shook examined a woman who had been thrown from her seat when the trains collided although she was in extreme pain she did not display external injuries many of the cases were like this and it made triage difficult you approach a patient and you ask them simple things like what's your name can you tell me where you are can you squeeze my hands that type of thing and if they follow a simple command you move on to the next the victim was disoriented shook slipped a triage tag around her wrists labeling her case immediate shook moved on to Patricia she was bleeding from a severe head wound [Music] the paramedic was more concerned with what he couldn't see internal injuries and bleeding with so many victims shook only had a few seconds to assess each one but his training had prepared him to deal with mass casualties you assess their respirations are they breathing if they're breathing then you assess how quickly they're breathing if it's over 30 you tag them as a media if they're not breathing you readjust their head position to try to open their airway because the tongue usually blocks their airway if they have spontaneous respirations with the movement of their head then they're tagged as immediate at that point Patricia was an excruciating pain she had suffered a head injury Jim shook tag to remediate and moved on Charlie Watts stayed with her until she could be moved to an ambulance there were hundreds of wounded passengers some with life-threatening injuries chief demonaco needed more help I ordered additional equipment in addition to what I had upgraded to the first time and asked for more engines and more ambulances the Orange County dispatcher called in every fire company in a several mile radius [Music] [Applause] so at this point now we really went into full-blown emergency mode really built up quickly a response we don't have the ability to know what that trains gonna do so we want to just make sure we keep all the resources as much as possible going to these people to get him out get him home get him safe at the Fullerton fire station captain Mike Phil got the call he said this was a train versus a Metrolink it looked like there was major damage and a large number of injuries possibly serious he was declaring at an MCI a mass casualty and he wanted the nearest five medic engines right away and several ambulances right away firefighters work quickly to move the injured outside where they could be treated in the first car a young woman was suffering from lacerations and a neck injury paramedics stabilized her neck and a brace and carefully placed her on a backboard she was tagged immediate [Music] when Captain Mike Phil arrived he was overwhelmed at the scope of the suffering it was real surreal real quiet and they were walking up to us almost bouncing off of us and they're you know holding their face and they had blood coming down Yeltsin cut you know lacerations on their foreheads or cheek bones or jaws you know bloody noses all over there you know blouses or suits and shirts and ties and looking for help wanting to help these were people that were in a state of fright panic you could see it in their eyes you can see in their face you could see the emotions you can see the tears captain Phil and his team set up a triage area on a 50-foot stretch of dirt between the tracks in the road it would also have to serve as a makeshift treatment area for the growing number of injured until they could be transported to the hospital demonaco had called in every resource he could think of and still it was not enough I had approximately 300 passengers on a train I knew I needed some more ambulances and I was very very concerned that we had people that were trapped in there without more resources to transport critically injured passengers some of the victims would die [Music] on April 23rd 2002 the unthinkable happened a freight train collided with a packed commuter train in Orange County California with hundreds of injured on board rescue personnel from all over the county responded to the scene Orange County Fire Chief John demonaco coordinated a massive rescue effort and still it was not enough he was about to receive help from an unexpected source in Brea just five miles away hundreds of firefighters from around the region were participating in a mass casualty exercise Red Cross coordinator Lisa Lara's received the call that the drill had been cancelled we realized it was a real scenario so all resources were deployed to the incident there were approximately 18 ambulances that were at the exercise already as well as approximately 20 fire engines the drill coordinator was informed of a possible multi-casualty incident or MCI less than 12 minutes after the crash additional paramedics and firefighters were dispatched to the scene more help was on the way now chief de Monaco's most pressing concern was making sure both train engines were secure and would not explode I had a freight train that was a mile and a quarter long with unknown cargo was there any hazardous materials on there or not and and until you know what it is that's the biggest fear is just not knowing de Monaco's men would have to check thousands of tons of containers searching for signs of hazardous material [Music] the chief dispatched teams to deal with any fire suppression and check the engines for evidence of dangerous leaks or spills there's 40,000 volts that run through the locomotives the freight train had three locomotives they checked all the hoses and connections on the freight train looking for anything that might ignite had a locomotive on the Metrolink train they have a lot of diesel fuel we don't know if we have any fire problems until we inspect those and make sure we don't have any fuel leaks electricity and diesel fuel are a deadly combination they check the Metrolink train for fuel leaks and electrical shorts 40,000 volts of electricity pulsing through the wrecked train would kill the passengers and the firefighters in an instant there were many damaged train cars any one of them could contain a threat about 100 yards from the crash site firefighters found one of the crew members of the freight train his legs had broken when he jumped from the Train from inside the train firefighters reported many more victims there was no sign of fire but the number of injured had climbed to over a hundred they called for additional ambulances companies from all over the county sent every ambulance in their fleet over a hundred fully equipped rescue vehicles [Applause] [Music] Jim shook made his way to the upper level of the first car [Music] there he found William Carter lying under one of the seats Carter was pale and his respiration dangerously shallow I encountered a gentleman that was laying on the floor and underneath the benches his head was tilted in a way that would make it difficult to breathe in the impact Carter's body had slammed into the edge of a work table the paramedic was afraid he had sustained life-threatening internal injuries he cleared the victims airway and inserted a tube to help him breathe shook tagged the patient they needed to get him to the hospital fast one hour earlier William Carter had been preparing for a bible class during his morning commute now he was fighting for his life [Music] his respiration was poor and his pulse was fading paramedics struggled to stabilize him so they could move into the treatment area outside the train captain Mike Phil got word that Carter was on his way out I could hear a radio traffic saying that they were bringing off a gentleman that appeared to be in a full rest and he was coming to our treatment area so I knew we were gonna have our hands full shortly jaime Pinedo had only been with the department a few weeks it was the first time he'd encountered a case this severe he looked like he was in full arrest yeah no color he was pale I started doing compressions the paramedics put him on a heart monitor pinedo continued compressions the patient did not respond they tried to start an IV but they could not find a vein his veins had collapsed I remember looking down at his face and there's just a feeling of helplessness because the person looked like he was dead we're trying to revive him the cardiac monitor showed a rhythm but not a pulse [Music] William Carter was declared dead at the scene the train collision had claimed its first victim April 23rd 2002 it was the worst train wreck in Southern California history [Music] a freight train had collided with a commuter train leaving hundreds of injured passengers witnesses to the crash were horrified they couldn't believe what they were seeing many rushed forward to help [Music] inside the Train Cynthia Runnels had been slammed into the seat in front of her her head was cut badly and she was bleeding heavily I was scared very scared a man who had witnessed the crash rushed to help her I remember looking up this guy in the black tank top was taking his shirt off and then he put it he tied it around my head my head wound I held my hands told me I'm gonna be fine he said he was gonna stay right there with me which he did the stranger staunched her bleeding until paramedics arrived the paramedics said he did a really good job and I think he may have saved my life I don't know his name I don't know exactly where he lived I don't know anything about him and I hope we meet up sometime so I could thank him now rescue officials faced a new problem they had over a hundred passengers to move and some of them were critically injured [Music] getting them to area hospitals was a monumental job bill Weston stepped in to coordinate ambulance traffic we got a lot of vehicles police cars fire trucks ambulances on scene in a very short amount of time so we had a large number of vehicles up to 50 ambulances arriving simultaneously which created a traffic nightmare Westin realized that there was a very small area allocated to dozens of ambulances if someone didn't direct them they would get snarled in traffic and delay getting patients to the hospital what I had to do was step out of the vehicle and use our other supervisors and literally direct ambulances by hand giving them hand signals and voice commands to back up and untangle themselves once the ambulances were cleared they now had access to the patient's immediate cases went first they were the most critical delayed cases followed at a rate of one every minute in sidecar - Matthew Schwager watched over Liz Benson she was thrown into that door feet first and her legs were crumpled against that door there were there was a lot of blood and speed-dialed her husband and told him who I was a train rider I ride with your wife on the train there's been a wreck and your wife is okay I'm gonna put her on the phone I saw one of the paramedics coming on board he had a gurney of some sort of a backboard I think it was and we positioned her put her on to the backboard and carried her out so that the door the trained in that more paramedics were there already so they took her from that point [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the lower level of car - Brian Shar a witness to the crash comforted Ruth Carlson the young woman was five months pregnant she was terrified she would lose her baby when paramedics arrived they checked her vital signs and examined her for injuries she was shaken up and distraught but her condition was not dangerous with the help of paramedics she was able to walk from the Train [Music] Anaheim Memorial received word to prepare for a mass influx of trauma casualties [Music] Tim Korver was the director of emergency services the operator called a code disaster external this indicates that there is a disaster external to the hospital and that they are preparing to send us patients [Music] less than two miles from the hospital an injured businessman went into cardiac arrest although they were only minutes from the ER paramedics were afraid he had run out of time a devastating train collision near Anaheim California left a hundred people injured and stretched emergency services to the limit at a makeshift treatment area Ruth Carlson was placed on a backboard for transport she was five months pregnant and paramedics watched for signs of early labor Ruth was one of many victims in route to the area hospitals paramedics had already mapped out the route and coordinated the flow of patients [Music] Lloyd Dean Keith the Dean of Students at Cal State Fullerton was rushed to a hospital in Anaheim she was in pain and her breathing was labored paramedics started an IV line and put her on oxygen [Music] st. Jude Medical Center braced for the onslaught their first patient was John Sampson an older businessman he had suffered massive internal injuries by the time he arrived in the ER he was in full cardiac arrest doctors work quickly to try and revive him he was given a shot to stimulate his heart and intubated to help him breathe [Music] charge nothing seemed to help they were losing the patient after 30 minutes John Sampson was pronounced dead the crash had claimed yet another life dr. Tim corbera is the head of emergency medicine at Anaheim Memorial Hospital we might get 50 100 150 patients in in a very short period of time the main challenge was making sure that the sicker patients the more critically injured patients were being moved to the front of the line doctors were seeing a lot of head injuries even a minor head trauma can turn fatal without warning each patient was given x-rays and cat scans the large cut on Cynthia Runnels head concerned doctors when questioned she could remember everything up until the crash but nothing after that the nurses and the doctors asked if I remember what happened if I can recall anything that led up to what happened and which I did - the very minute but I after that after we actually got hit I didn't understand what happened doctors look for any sign of permanent damage they determined that Cynthia had sustained a severe concussion but would recover at Kaiser Permanente dr. Jan Shem Key had a full day of surgery scheduled but when she learned about the train crash she rushed straight to the ER to help conductor Peter Paulson was still disoriented you want to try to find the things that are going to cause a patient to immediately expire we always first are concerned that their breathing and that they have a blood pressure and after that then we have a systematic approach of checking patients from the head down to their feet Jim Kay carefully assess his injuries the patient seemed confused the skill is being able to diagnose it very quickly because if you don't then the patient will die very rapidly in order to diagnose it it takes some clinical judgment it's also based upon the Meccan some of injury meaning how the patient was injured it's generally a blunt-trauma shim key wasn't taking any chances she ordered a head CT to look for any signs of trauma we had to take many x-rays looking for broken bones and other collapsed lungs and other neck injuries potential you know injuries that could cause paralysis the issue with the blunt trauma is it's not like a gunshot wound the bullet goes in the bullet does some damage the main decision is do you need to operate or not blunt trauma there can be a lot of hidden injuries that can ultimately kill a patient testing confirmed what paramedics had suspected Peter Paulson had a severe concussion but he would survive Ruth Carlson had been dispatched to another local hospital she was five months pregnant on the train paramedics feared her water had broken she had been seen by an OBGYN who tested her for any signs of stress on a run born child both she and her baby were going to be fine Modine Keith arrived at a hospital in Anaheim her condition it's stabilized in the ambulance she too would survive family members flooded the hospitals looking for their loved ones patients with minor injuries were released five weeks later Lloyd Dean Keith was back riding the train as soon as I was able to take the train I started taking the train I felt I needed to do that I needed to as they say you know kind of get back on the horse that through you so I continued to ride there just to stare in the face in an investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board it was found that the six thousand ton freight train impacted the passenger train at 22 miles per hour two men died in the hours following the catastrophe a third passenger an elderly woman died nearly two months later well over a hundred people were injured if the train had been traveling just five miles an hour faster all of the passengers would have been killed on impact [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 691,525

Keywords: Wonder, critical rescue, wonder channel, critical rescue wonder, critical rescue full episodes, natural disaster, survival videos, extreme survival, critical rescue train crash, train crash, extreme survial, train collision, injured people, train crash surviviors, rescue mission, train accident, california train crash, crash, crashes caught on tape, crashes on video, wonder survival videos

Id: Tl9ddM0oiJQ

Length: 49min 14sec (2954 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020