With the deadline of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 extended to December 2018, Metrolink leads the nation as the first commuter rail to run Positive Train Control, or PTC, systemwide. In its official report of the 2008 Metrolink Chatsworth crash, the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, cited that PTC’s GPS Read more…
The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, investigates all railroad collisions in the United States and issues a report after each review. Since 1996, those analyses are online, including the 83-page detailed description of the 2008 Chatsworth Metrolink crash. As Patricia Nazario reports live from the crash, the horrific accident Read more…
For the most part, trains that move passengers and cargo on railroads across the United States only follow a red light safety system that became the industry standard more than 150 years ago. The National Transportation Safety Board has long urged railroad officials to invest in Positive Train Control, or PTC, Read more…
As the 2018 federal deadline looms for Positive Train Control, or PTC, the rail industry continues spending millions on lobbyists on Capitol Hill to persuade lawmakers to delay and weaken the 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act, which amounts to a $15-billion dollar investment for railroad companies. The federal law requires most Read more…
Soldiers who return from war and don’t seek help for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often hush recurring horrors with drugs, alcohol, or suicide. Patricia Nazario checks out one solution at Loma Linda V-A Hospital in the Inland Empire. There, Vietnam Veterans freely discuss coping mechanisms for anger, which can rage Read more…
Flags at half staff and fire trucks –polished and bright– lined up near the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels downtown set the scene for Brent Lovrien’s farewell. He is the first firefighter Los Angeles has lost on the job in almost four years. Patricia Nazario was there as friends, Read more…
Some members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team still remember the 11-hour standoff on February 7, 2008, like it was yesterday. Just before midnight, SWAT officers responded to a hostage call at a house in the West San Fernando Valley. At about 12:30 in the morning, senior SWAT Read more…
Around 12:30 in the morning, LAPD SWAT officers escalate force to a “flash bang” grenade. The team hoped the loud and bright diversionary explosion would stun the shooter, and give them a tactical advantage. According to the LA Weekly, it didn’t work, because the shooter was down a hallway and well Read more…
Los Angeles Police Captain Michelle Veenstra arrived at Northridge Medical Center shortly after her husband, LAPD SWAT officer James Veenstra, was admitted for emergency surgery to his face and jaw. His partner, SWAT officer Randal Simmons, was shot in the neck during a violet 11-hour standoff, and died at Northridge Read more…
Dozens of reporters gather to learn more about the events that lead to an 11-hour standoff and gun battle about a quarter mile away from the bloody crime scene. Deputy Chief Michel Moore of the LAPD Valley Bureau says Edwin Rivera called 911 around 9 p.m. to say he was holding six Read more…