CHP: SMART train crashed into truck at nearly top speed

A Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train was going nearly top speed at 77 mph when it crashed into a box truck last Thursday outside Santa Rosa, authorities said.

CHP Officer Jon Sloat confirmed Wednesday the speed, which SMART reported to the agency.

The crash that happened just after 3 p.m. on Todd Road was the first collision between a SMART train and a vehicle.

The impact jolted some passengers out of their seats, shook nearby buildings and spread piles of debris across the tracks. The train engineer, who SMART officials have declined to identify, applied the emergency brake just before the crash, SMART Police Chief Jennifer Welch said.

There wasn't enough time to sound the horn before the crash, she said. The furniture delivery truck driver, Detlev Ihlenfeld, 68, was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening, Sloat said. None of the 47 passengers and three crew members aboard the train was injured.

Sloat estimated the truck was traveling westbound around 25 to 30 mph at the time of the crash. A surveillance video posted online Sunday captured the moment the truck plowed through the lowered crossing arms into the train's path.

Welch initially declined to release the train speed, as the crash investigation was ongoing, but conceded Wednesday that data logs showed the train traveling at 77 mph in a 79 mph zone.

Welch said SMART utilizes safety measures such as bright headlights on trains, flashing railroad crossing lights, bells, gate arms and horns that sound before stops that aren't in quiet zones. There's also positive train control, a monitoring system that regulates speed and prevents train-to-train collisions.

“PTC has no way to detect oncoming traffic on city streets,” Welch said.

A video, shot from a security camera on a Ghilotti Construction Co. building on Todd Road was posted online Sunday to the image-sharing website gfycat.com and has been viewed more than 429,000 views as of Thursday.