No Charges for Now Against Truck Driver in California Train Crash - East Idaho News
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No Charges for Now Against Truck Driver in California Train Crash

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metrolinkcrashJPG?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1425039947710KABC-TV(VENTURA, Calif.) — No charges are expected to be filed — for now — against the driver whose truck got stuck on a set of train tracks, causing a gnarly collision in Oxnard, California earlier this week.

According to the Ventura County District Attorney, the ongoing investigation into the crash is “complex and involves numerous local and federal agencies.” The DA says he will “await the completion of this investigation before making a formal filing decision.”

The DA did say that the arrest of the driver, Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, was “clearly appropriate and lawful.”

Sanchez-Ramirez was released on Thursday evening, according to ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV.

During a Thursday evening press conference, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Robert Sumwalt said that preliminary information from the train’s data recorder shows that the emergency brake was applied eight seconds before impact, while it was traveling at 64 mph. At the time of the crash, the train had slowed to 56 mph. Both figures are well below the 79 mph speed limit for that section of track, Sumwalt noted.

Sumwalt also said that the crossing signals worked “as designed.”

Photos from the train’s camera showed that the truck’s passenger side tires were inside of the rails, while the driver’s side tires were outside the rails. That combination could have caused the train to be stuck, Sumwalt said.


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