Three years later, pain remains

Metrolink crash



A day after the nation came together to remember the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, local residents united to remember their own personal tragedy.

Monday marked the third anniversary of the Chatsworth Metrolink train crash, which claimed the lives of 25 and injured more than 130.

Crash victims and the friends and family of those who died gathered at the memorial plaza at the Simi Valley train station Sept. 12.

Bouquets of flowers were laid at the memorial’s pavers. Stories of loved ones and tales of survival were shared. Tears were shed. But above it all was a lingering sense of resentment toward the train operator who those affected hold responsible for their pain.

“I probably share what every- one else here feels— Veolia got away with murder,” Simi resident Joanne Abruzzese said. She and her husband, Pat, are the host parents of Zambian exchange student Racheal Mofya, who was riding in the first car and sustained serious injuries in the crash.

Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of French conglomerate Veolia, is the company that hired engineer Robert Sanchez, who was found to be texting on his cellphone when he ran a red light and collided with a Union Pacific freight train outside of Chatsworth on Sept. 12, 2008.

Of those killed, 21 were Ventura County residents, including 10 from Simi Valley, four from Moorpark, three from Camarillo and two from Thousand Oaks.

Abruzzese was right. Most of the three dozen or so people who gathered at the memorial site expressed that they are still incensed at Veolia for not providing more funds for victims of the crash.

Federal law caps the liability for passenger rail accidents at $200 million, and Veolia has refused to give any more, despite the repeated pleas of community members and lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge made the final settlement allocations for the train crash victims in July, but those who were affected by the disaster are not giving up the fight for an increase in the settlement pot.

Because her injuries were so severe, Mofya, 30, received the largest award of $9 million. Though that’s quite a sum, Abruzzese said it is still not enough to cover all of Mofya’s medical expenses.

“Racheal will need 24-hour care the rest of her life,” she said. “I get so sad because Racheal had such a bright future. All the time she invested in her education . . . it’s all gone.”

Newbury Park resident Ellen Ashman is also angry. Her husband, Don, a priest and a teacher, was riding the train that day, and it still brings up painful emotions to recall the day. She was on the phone with Don at the time of the crash.

“I heard the moans and the groans. I heard someone scream, ‘ There’s blood everywhere.’ And meanwhile my husband wasn’t answering,” she said, the memory bringing tears to her eyes. “He didn’t answer for five minutes. . . . It was scary.”

Don survived— he had switched seats 10 minutes before the crash, moving from a frontfacing table seat to a rear-facing seat near the bulkhead.

Although he sustained back injuries, the crash hasn’t stolen his love for trains—now 65, he still rides one every day to work in Glendale. But Ellen said she and her husband are furious with Veolia and believe the company should give more simply because it’s the right thing to do.

“It’s the principle. They’re scum,” she said. “They’re hiding behind our U.S. laws, which is pretty despicable.”

Janice Gallegly, who attended the memorial on her congressman husband’s behalf, said Veolia has the means to pay and that victims shouldn’t give up but “keep the pressure on.”

“ All the unpaid medical expenses are going to be at the taxpayer’s burden because these people aren’t going to be able to have enough money to pay their medical bills,” Gallegly said. “So we need Veolia, the company that’s still running the train (to step up)—and they were responsible, they were negligent.”

Thousand Oaks resident Barbara Kloster, who organized Monday’s informal gathering, said she won’t stop fighting—the only way she will get past her anger is to see resolution for the victims. She’s called Veolia officials and written numerous letters to that end.

“ I can’t quit. I can’t give Veolia the power, because if you give a bully power they get stronger. And just because it happened here doesn’t mean it can’t happen (again) elsewhere,” said Kloster, whose adult son Mike, a Moorpark resident, was sitting at a table seat on the train when it crashed and sustained extensive, almost-fatal abdominal injuries.

“I’m going to win for everybody,” she said. “It started out for my son and it went to everybody because everybody was a victim, whether you survived or didn’t survive.”

For Simi resident Laura Gerritsen, every day is hard without her life partner, Spree DeSha, a Los Angeles Police Department officer who died in the crash.

“I don’t remember who said this, but you don’t get over it—you kind of go around it,” Gerritsen said. “That’s what I’m doing. I’m just trying to find my way around it. It’s still very tough.”