It was the worst crash in the rail agency’s history until Metrolink 111 crashed head-on with a freighter Sept. 12 in Chatsworth, killing 25.
In a press briefing Thursday morning on the steps of a Los Angeles Superior Courthouse, attorneys for the victims of the Glendale crash alleged the Metrolink 901 engineer violated operating policy when he failed to immediately apply emergency brakes upon seeing the Jeep Cherokee.
The engineer noticed the Jeep when he was about three-quarters of a mile away, but did not apply full emergency brakes until about 870 feet from the point of impact — a lapse of about six seconds, alleged Jerome Ringler, the lead plaintiff attorney in the class-action lawsuit.
Under pressure to submit public infrastructure projects in time for federal stimulus funding, the City Council on Tuesday voted to submit a $155.8-million wish list for state and federal consideration.
The list of 40 projects included $12 million for the realignment of a major wastewater line, $11 million for a chromium removal water treatment plan, $6.1 million for park development and $184,000 to expand community gardens.
City officials and lobbyists were pushing to have the list of existing or nearly ready-to-go projects lined up in time for the $819-billion economic stimulus bill that the U.S. House of Representatives sent to the Senate on Wednesday.
PUBLIC SAFETY
A 43-year-old basketball coach who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a Glendale motel was charged Friday at Glendale Superior Court with 12 felony counts of sexual assault, police said.
Erik Ross, an Eagle Rock resident and a coach at Franklin High School in Los Angeles, faces eight charges of oral copulation and four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.
