OXNARD, Calif. — A commuter train slammed into a truck stuck on the tracks early Tuesday, sending three rail cars tumbling onto their sides and injuring 28 people in the fiery crash in California.
The accident occurred around 5:45 a.m. about 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Four people, including the train engineer, had critical injuries.
The truck driver was found disoriented one or two miles away, said Jason Benitez, an assistant chief of the Oxnard Police Department.
The crash occurred at a spot where the tracks cross an avenue just before an intersection.
The driver was making a right turn from the avenue onto the cross-street but ended up on the tracks, Benitez said.
The driver, identified only as a 54-year-old from Arizona, was cooperating and was not under arrest, Benitez said.
The driver was hospitalized in stable condition.
Glenn Frisbie was driving to work and sitting at an intersection about a block away when the train struck the truck.
‘‘I saw a bright flash, a big fireball, and flames, flames going pretty high,’’ he said.
Little was left of the truck except scorched and mangled wreckage, with some debris found in a nearby intersection and some close to the tracks.
‘‘When the crews arrived on scene, it was in flames, the vehicle, and it was pretty much cut in half,’’ Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Martinez said.
The Metrolink train carrying 48 passengers and three crew members was heading from Ventura County to Los Angeles. The injured people were taken to several area hospitals.