NTSB: Acute driver fatigue blamed for 2015 fatal train vs. truck crash in Oxnard
Federal investigators have released the findings into the deadly 2015 crash between a Metrolink commuter train and a utility truck in Oxnard.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) final report was released Monday afternoon. In it, investigators reveal that the accident was probably due to acute fatigue and a lack of familiarity with the area, on the part of the truck driver, 54-year-old Jose Alejandro Sanchez Ramirez, who turned onto the tracks at a rail crossing.
The NTSB report also reveals that Sanchez-Ramirez has been on duty for nearly 24 hours, 17 of which was spent driving from Somerton, Arizona to a work site in Oxnard.
The pre-dawn crash near 5th Street and Rice Avenue left at least 29 people hospitalized — including two conductors — and four cars derailed. One of the conductors later died from his injuries.
Oxnard Police Department spokesperson Jason Benites said Sanchez-Ramirez was found by a police officer walking along Rice Avenue about two miles from the crash site in a state of distress.
Monday’s report also stated that Ventura County prosecutors filed a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter against Sanchez-Ramirez of Yuma, Arizona.
